
aiss_ 



* 



PKESHXTHI) I3Y 



.^-n::^. 



I 




/-/'7'-^ X 













% 


1- 






1 


}/ 


r t 


1' I 






u 


AM 


X ^7~^ 



3o Imj'W of Oreenwiauo 






DISCOVERY AND ADVENTURE 



POLAR SEAS AND REGIONS. 




NEW-YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-ST. 



1 836. 



Harper^s Stereotype Edition. 

NARRATIVE 

OF 

DISCOVERY AND ADVENTURE 

IN THE 

POLAR SEAS AND REGIOI^Si 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF THEIR 

CLIMATE, GEOLOGY, AND NATURAL HISTORY; 

^ AND AN ACCOUNT OF 

THE WHALE-FISHERY. 



BY PROFESSOR I^SLIE, PROFESSOR JAMESON, 
AND HUGH MURRAY. ESQ. F.R.S E. 



NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, 

\fi\ 

VO. 82 C LI F F - 8 T R E E T. 

18 3 6 H 



&U>Zo 
I95U 



•^ 



M)ss Alice H. BUsiMB 



^*^.U> I 



MAR 2 1944 



\ 

c 



JOHN BARROW, Esq F.R.S., 

ONE OF THE SECRETARIES OF THE ADMIRALTY* 
THE CHIEF PROMOTER OF DISCOVERY 

IN THE 

POLAR SEAS AND REGIONS, 

THIS WORK IS 
(with permission) 
most respectfully dedicated, by^ 
THE PUBLISHERS. 



PREFACE 



The design of the present work is to exhibit a 
complete and connected view of the successive 
voyages made to the Arctic regions. In those 
climates Nature is marked by the most stupendous 
features, and the forms which she assumes differ 
from her appearances in our milder latitudes almost 
as widely as if they belonged to another planet. 
There the scenery is awful and dreary, yet abounds 
in striking, sublime, and even beautiful objects. 
The career of the navigators, who at various times 
have traversed the northern seas, amid tempest, 
darkness, and mountains of floating ice, presents 
such a series of peril and vicissitude, and has given 
rise to so many extraordinary displays of intrepidity 
and heroism, as cannot fail to render most interest- 
ing the story of their several adventures. When 
we consider also, that in this field of discovery 
England laid the foundation of her maritime pre- 
eminence, and that the men who have earned the 
greatest glory in it have been chiefly British, it will 
be admitted that the History of Northern Navigation 
must have a peculiar charm for the English reader. 

The narrative of these Voyages has been care- 
fully drawn from the most authentic sources, by 



VI PREFACE. 

Mr. Hugh Murray ; and the most distinguished men 
of science in Scotland have lent their aid to illus- 
trate that wonderful order of nature which prevails 
within the Arctic Circle. Professor Leslie has 
commenced the volume with a full examination of 
the Climate and its Phenomena, — subjects so promi- 
nent in those high latitudes, that, without a prelimi- 
nary knowledge of them, the progress of discovery 
would be but imperfectly understood. A general 
Survey of all that is known of the Geological Struc- 
ture of the same interesting regions is given by Pro- 
fessor Jameson. The chapter on Natural History, 
though it treats the subject rather in a popular than 
in a scientific manner, has received the careful re- 
vision of a distinguished naturalist. 

The Whale-fishery forms an essential branch of 
the present work. Of its daring operations, and its 
various perils — as they occur in the depth of the 
Polar seas — the description here introduced may be 
the more acceptable, as it is presumed to be the only 
one hitherto attempted within a moderate compass. 

It might, perhaps, be expected that this work 
should embrace an account of the expeditions per- 
formed, by land or in boats, to ascertain the northern 
boundaries of America and Asia : such a narrative, 
however, was found quite incompatible with the 
object of the present undertaking. The relation 
of these enterprises may find a place in some future 
volumes devoted expressly to the history of adven- 
ture on the remote shores of those two continents. 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. I. — The Climate of the Polar Regions ... 9 
11. — Animal and Vegetable Life in the Polar 

Regions . S2 

III. — ^Ancient Voyages to the North .... 83 
IV. — Voyages in Search of a North-East Passage 90 
V. — Early Voyages towards the Pole . . . .132 
VI. — Early Voyages in Search of a North- West 

Passage 143 

VII. — Recent Voyages for the Discovery of a 

North- West Passage 200 

T III. — Recent Voyages towards the North Pole . 259 

IX.--The Northern Whale-Fishery 297 

X. — ^Arctic Geology 352 



ENGRAVINGS. 



Chart of the Polar Seas . . . To face the Titlepage* 
Vignette — Perils attending the Whale-Fishery 

Icebergs Page 28 

Whale with its Cub, Narwal, &c 57 

Arctic Animals — Polar Bear, Reindeer, Wolf, Fox, 

Dog, &c 65 

Esquimaux Boy and Dog 83 

Bear approaching a Snow-hut 131 

Esquimaux striking a Walrus 142 

Kayak, or Greenlander's Canoe ...••.. 164 

Mount Hecla 181 

Oomiak, or Woman's Boat 224 

Snow Village 234 

Group of Esquimaux ♦ 246 

Esquimaux Watching a Seal-hole 249 

Implements used in the Whale-Fishery ..... 316 



POLAR 
SEAS AND REGIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Climate of" the Polar Regions* 

The climate and seasons within the Arctic circle 
exhibit most peculiar and striking features, which 
modify in a singular manner the whole aspect of na 
ture. An investigation of those phenomena seems 
therefore necessary for enabling the reader to com- 
prehend the narrative, and to follow through such 
icy regions the paths of the daring navigators. And 
the more fully to eluQidate the subject, it will be 
proper to give some explication of the principles that 
regulate generally the distribution of heat over the 
surface of our globe. 

Many of the facts relating to the Polar climate have 
been collected in the course of the bold and ardu- 
ous attempts to penetrate to India across the northern 
seas. Projects of this kind, after being long sus- 
pended, were, in 1818, renewed, and embraced with 
peculiar ardour by the English government. For 
two or three years previous to 1818, the captains of 
ships employed in the northern whale-fishery had ge- 
nerally concurred in representing the Arctic sea as 
of a sudden become almost open and accessible to 
the adventurous navigator. By the more speculative 
relaters, it had been supposed that the vast icy bar- 
rier which, for many ages, obstructed those forlorn 
regions was at last, by some revolution of our globe, 



10 CLIMATE. 

broken up and dispersed. The project of finding a 
north-west passage to Asia, — a project so often 
attempted and so long abandoned, — was by conse 
quence again revived ; and the more daring scheme 
of penetrating to the Pole itself had likewise been 
seriously proposed. Of the complete success of 
either plan, the hopes of sober thinkers were indeed 
extremely slender ; yet the prospect held forth 
seemed to be more inviting, on the whole, than at any 
former period when such bold undertakings had been 
attempted. The discovery of a north-west passage, 
were it ever attainable, could hardly, it is true, be 
of any real benefit to our commerce ; since, in such 
high latitudes, where only it must be sought for, it 
would at all times be very precarious, and liable 
to interruption from the prevalence of ice. The 
scheme of actually reaching that northern point on 
the surface of our globe, which terminates its axis 
of rotation, however interestmg m it philosophical 
view, can only be regarded as an object of pure cu- 
riosity, and not likely to lead to any useful or prac- 
tical results. Yet was it befitting the character of 
a great maritime nation to embrace every chance 
of improving geographical knowledge, and of ex- 
tending the basis of natural science. 

The books and memoirs which contain the latest 
accounts of the state of the northern seas, either sug- 
gested the enterprise then pursued, or were brought 
forward in consequence of its adoption. Mr. Daines 
Barrington, a man of learning and some ingenuity, em- 
braced with ardour the opinion of the possibility of ap- 
proaching to the Pole. In successive papers commu- 
nicated to the Royal Society of London he not only 
condensed the information furnished by the older voy- 
agers, but exhibited the results of the numerous que- 
ries relating to the same object, which he had circu- 
lated among persons engaged in the Greenland fishery. 
He thus proved, that in certain favourable seasons, the 
Arctic seas are for several weeks so open, that intrepid 



CLIMATE* 11 

navigators might safely penetrate to a very high 
latitude. In compliance with his sanguine repre- 
sentatiims, the Admiralty, in 1773, despatched Captain 
Phipps to explore those regions ; but this commander 
was unsuccessful in the attempt, having reached only 
the lat itude of SOh degrees when his ship got sur- 
rounded by a body of ice near Spitzbergen, and es- 
caped v^ith extreme difficulty, though many of the 
whaleis had in that summer advanced farther. Mr. 
Barring! on did not, however, despair ; and, following 
out his -views, he induced Mr. Naire and Dr. Higgins 
to mak(i experiments on the congelation of sea-water. 
The various facts were collected in a small volume, 
to which Colonel Beaufoy subjoined an appendix, 
containing the answers made to his queries by Rus- 
sian hunters (who are accustomed to spend the 
whole year in Spitzbergen), relative to the probability 
of travelling from that island to the Pole during win- 
ter, in sledges drawn by rein-deer. The reports of 
these hardy men were sufficiently discouraging. 
They pi(*tured the winter at Spitzbergen as not only 
severe but extremely boisterous, the snow falling to 
the depth of three or five feet, and drifting so much 
along the shores by the violence of the winds as 
often to block up all communication. The danger 
of being surprised and overwhelmed by clouds of 
snow, rair^ed in sudden gusts, was so great, that they 
never ventured to undertake any long journeys over 
the ice. Nov did they think it at all practicable to 
have loaded sledges dragged over a surface so 
rough and liilly, by the force of reindeer or dogs. 

The speculations of Mr. Scoresby had more than 
ordinary claims to attention, as exhibiting the con- 
clusions oi* a most diligent, accurate, and scientific 
observer. Trained from infancy to the navigation 
of the frozen seas, under the direction of his father, 
a most enteiprising and successful leader, he con- 
joined exp(iiience with ingenuity and judgment. For 
several years, during the intervals of his Greenland 



12 CLIMATE. 

voyages, he prosecuted a regular course of study^ 
which enriched his mind with liberal attainments, and 
gave a new impulse to his native ingenuity and 
ardour. It was exceedingly to be regretted that any 
jealousies or official punctilios should have prevented 
government from intrusting the principal command 
of the Polar expedition to him who not only proposed 
it originally, but whose talents and science, joined to 
his activity, perseverance, and enthusiasm, afforded 
assuredly the best promise of its ultimate success. 

Hans Egede, a benevolent enthusiast, formed a 
plan of reclaiming the natives of Greenland from the 
errors of Paganism. After various ineffectual at- 
tempts, he at last procured, by subscription, the sum 
of £2000, with which he purchased a vessel, and car* 
ried his family and forty settlers to Baal's river, in 
the 64th degree of north latitude, where he landed 
on the 3d of July, 1721. He was afterward ap- 
pointed missionary, with a small salary by the Danish 
government, which occasionally granted some aid to 
the colony. During his stay, which lasted till 1736,^ 
he laboured with great zeal in his vocation. In 1757, 
the year before his death, he printed his Description 
of Greenland, in the Danish language, at Copenhagen. 
A translation of that work, much improved and en- 
larged, with useful additions by the editor, contains 
valuable information, tinged with a large portion of 
credulity. 

It is remarkable, that two centuries of extreme 
activity should have added so very little to our 
knowledge of the Arctic regions. The relations of 
the earlier navigators to those parts possess an m- 
terest which has not been yet eclipsed. The voyage 
of Martens from Hamburgh to Spitzbergen may be 
cited as still the most instructive. But the best and 
completest work on the subject of the northern 
fisheries, is a treatise in three volumes octavo, trans- 
lated from the Dutch language into French by 
Bernard de Reste, and published at Paris in 180 !♦ 



CLIMATE. 13 

under the title Histoire des Peches, des Dicouvertes, 
et des Etablissemens des Hollandais dans les Mers du 
Kord. 

The Arctic expedition, which in 1818 attracted the 
attention of the public, proposed two distinct ob- 
jects, — to advance towards the Pole — and to explore 
a north-west passage to China. These were no 
doubt splendid schemes ; but, in order to form a right 
estimate of the plan and some anticipation of its pro- 
bable results, it was necessary to proceed with cau- 
tion, and employ the lights of science to guide our 
steps. The facts alleged, respecting the vast islands 
or continents of ice recently separated and dispersed 
from the Arctic regions, gave occasion to much loose 
reasoning, to wild and random conjectures, and 
visionary declamation. Glowing anticipations were 
confidently formed of the future amelioration of cli- 
mate, which would scarcely be hazarded even in the 
dreams of romance. Every person possessing a 
slight tincture of physical science, conceived himself 
qualified to speculate concerning the phenomena of 
weather, in which he feels a deep interest ; and hence 
a very flimsy and spurious kind of philosophy, how- 
ever trifling or despicable it may appear in the eyes 
of the few who are accustomed to think more pro- 
foundly, gained currency among certain classes of 
men, and engendered no small share of conceit. 
Meteorology is a complex science, depending on so 
many subordinate principles, that require the union 
of accurate theory with a range of nice and various 
observations, as to have advanced very slowly 
towards perfection. 

With regard to the nature and real extent of the 
change which had taken place in the condition of 
the icy seas, the reports have no doubt been greatly 
exaggerated. To reduce them to their just amount, 
it would be necessary to estimate the annual effects 
produced in those regions, and likewise to compare 
the observations of a similar kind made by expe- 
B 



14 CLIMATE. 

rienced navigators at fonner periods. From a 
critical examination of the various facts left on 
record, it will perhaps appear, that those Arctic 
seas have been more than once, in the course of 
the last half century, as open as they are now repre- 
sented. 

To discuss with accuracy the question of the 
periodical formation and destruction of the Polar 
ice, it becomes necessary to explain the true princi- 
ples which regulate the distribution of heat over the 
globe. This I shall attempt to perfonn, independent 
of every hypothesis, by a direct appeal to experiment 
and observation. 

If, at any place we dig into the ground, we find, by 
the insertion of a thermometer, that, as we succes- 
sively descend, we approach constantly to some 
limiting temperature, which below a certain depth 
continues unchanged. This depth of equilibrium 
varies in different soils ; but seldom exceeds thirty 
or fifty feet. If the excavation be made about the 
commencement of winter, the temperature will ap- 
pear to increase in the lower strata ; but, on the con- 
trary, if the pit be formed in the beginning of sum- 
mer, it will be found to grow colder as we descend.* 
Hence, the mass of the earth merely transmits very 
slowly the impressions of heat or of cold received at 
its surface. The external temperature of any given 
day will perhaps take near a month to penetrate 
only one foot into the ground. By digging down- 
wards in summer, we soon reach, therefore, the im- 
pressions of the preceding spring and winter ; but the 
same progress into the ground brings us back to the 

* In the dreary climate of Hudson's Bay, it is remarked by the resi- 
dents, that, even during the summer months, in digging through the 
ground for a grave, they always come at the depth of a few feet to a 
stratum of frozen earth. A singular feature of the remoter Arctic tracts 
is the frequent appearance of red snow. This deception is occasioned 
by the interspersed multitudes of minute plants, now termed Protococcus 
Nivalis^ a species oCAlgcB, which penetrate to a great depth through the 
snow, and vegetate in the severest weather 



CLIMATE. 15 

temperatures of the autumn and of the summer. 
Still lower, all the various fluctuations of heat be- 
come intermingled and confounded in one common 
mean. Such observations are more easily and cor- 
rectly made, by having thermometers, with long 
stems, sunk to different depths in the ground ; and 
from an extensive register we may conclude, that the 
temperature of the ground is always the mean result 
of the impressions made at the surface during a 
series of years. The successive strata, therefore, at 
great depths, may be regarded as permanent records 
of the average state of the weather in distant ages. 
Perhaps the superficial influence will scarcely de- 
scend fifty feet in the lapse of a century. Copious 
springs, which percolate the bowels of the earth, and 
rapidly convey the impressions of subterranean heal 
to the surface, will consequently furnish the most 
accurate reports of the natural register of climate. 
These, if rightly chosen, differ not sensibly in their 
temperature at all seasons ; and, whether they have 
their seat at a depth of one hundred or of five hun- 
dred feet, they affect the thermometer alike.* We 
are hence entitled to conclude, that however the 
weather may have varied from year to year, or 
changed its character at intervals of short periods of 
years, it has yet undergone no material alteration 
during the efflux of many ages. 

Some philosophers attempt to explain such facts 
as are now stated, from the supposed internal heat 
of the globe, caused by the action of central fires ; 
and pretend, in support of their favourite hypothesis, 

* The celebrated fountain of Vaucluse, situate in the latitude of 43° 
55', and 360 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea, has been ob- 
served to acquire its highest temperature about the first day of Septenj- 
ber, and to reach the lowest at the beginning of April, the former being 
660.3, and the latter 54°. 1 by Fahrenheit's scale ; which gives 550.2 for 
its mean heat. The waters are collected from the fissures of an exten- 
sive limestone rock, and seem to receive the superficial impressions in 
the space of three months. They burst forth with such a volume as to 
form, only a few yards below their source, the translucid Sorgue, a river 
ncarcely iiferior in its discharge to the Tay above Perth. 



16 CLIMATE. 

that the temperature always increases near the bot- 
tom of very deep mines. But this observation holds 
only in particular situations, where the warm exha- 
lations from the burning of lamps and the breathing 
of the workmen are collected and confined under the 
roofs of the galleries. In the case of a deep open 
pit, the effect is quite reversed, the bottom being 
always colder than the mean temperature. This is 
owing to the tendency of the chill air to descend by 
its superior density. The superficial impressions of 
heat and cold are thus not sent equally downwards ; 
so that the warmth of summer is dissipated at the 
mouth of the pit, while the rigours of winter are col- 
lected below. A similar modification of temperature 
we shall find occurs in profound lakes, in conse- 
quence of the disposition of the colder and denser 
portions of the water always to sink down. 

The permanent heat of the ground is, therefore, 
produced by the mere accumulation of incessant ex- 
ternal impressions. These impressions are received, 
either directly from the sun's rays, or circuitously, 
through the medium of atmospheric influence. But 
air is better fitted for diffusing than for storing up 
heat. The whole mass of the atmosphere, it maybe 
easily shown, does not contain more heat than a 
stratum of water only ten feet thick, or one of earth 
measuring fifteen feet. According to their relative 
temperature, the winds, in sweeping along the 
ground, either abstract or communicate warmth. 
But the sun is the great and original fountain of 
heat, which the internal motion excited in the at- 
mosphere only serves to distribute more equally over 
the earth's surface. The heat imparted to the air, 
or to the ground, is always proportional to the ab- 
sorption of the solar beams; and the results are 
hence still the same, whether we embrace the simple 
theory, that heat is only the subtle fluid of light, in 
a state of combination with its substratum ; or pre- 
fer the opinion, that light has always conjoined 



CLIMATE. 17 

with it a certain admixture of the invisible matter 
of heat. 

Owing to the spherical form of the earth, and the 
obliquity of its axis, very different quantities of liorht 
or heat are received in the several latitudes. The 
same portion of heat which would raise the tempera- 
ture of 135 pounds of water a degree on Fahrenheit's 
scale, is only capable of melting one pound of ice. 
The measure of ice dissolved is, therefore, the sim- 
plest and most correct standard for estimating the 
quantity of heat expended in that process. If we 
apply calculation to actual experiment, we shall find 
that the entire and unimpaired light of the sun would, 
at the Equator, at the mean latitude of 45°, and at 
the Pole, be sufficient to melt a thickness of ice ex- 
pressed by 38.7, 25.9, and 13.4 feet. Of this enor- 
mous action, the greatest portion is no doubt wasted 
in the vast abyss of the ocean ; and, of the remain- 
der, a still larger share is perhaps detained and dis- 
sipated in the upper atmosphere, or projected again 
in a soft phosphorescence. Yet the light which, after 
those defalcations, finally reaches the surface of the 
earth, if left to accumulate there, would create such 
inequality of temperature as must prove quite insup- 
portable. 

The slow conducting quahty of the ground, if not 
altered by extraneous influence, would fix the heat 
where it was received, and thus perpetuate the effect 
of the unequal action of the sun's beams. The 
mobility of the atmosphere hence performs an im- 
portant office in the economy of nature, as a great 
regulator of the system, dispensing moderate warmth, 
and attempering the extremities of climate over the 
face of the globe. As the heat accumulates within 
the tropics, it will occasion currents of cold air to 
rush from the higher latitudes. But the activity of 
the winds thus raised, being proportional to their ex- 
citing cause, must prevent it from ever surpassing 
certain limits. A perpetual commerce of heat be- 
B2 



18 



CLIMATE. 



tween the Poles and the Equator is hence maintained, 
by the ag-ency of opposite currents in the atmosphere. 
These currents will often have their direction modi- 
fied ; and they may still produce the same effects, by 
pursuing" an oblique or devious course. The actual 
phenomena of climate only require the various 
w^inds, tluroughout the year, to advance southw^ards 
or northwards at the mean rate of almost two miles 
an hour, or to perform in effect three journeys of 
transfer annually from the Equator to either Pole. 
Not that these currents carry the impressions of heat 
or cold directly from one extremity of the globe to 
the other, but, by their incessant play, they contri- 
bute, in the succession of ages, to spread them gra- 
dually over the intervening space. 

The system of opposite aerial currents leads to the 
same law of the gradation of temperature in different 
latitudes, as the celebrated Professor Mayer of Got- 
tingen deduced from an empirical process. It would 
appear that the variation of the mean temperature 
at the level of the sea is always proportional to the 
sine of twice the latitude. Thus, for the parallels 
of every five degrees, the arrangement is simple : — 



Latitude. Mean Temperature. 



0° 


84° 


50° 


53°.5 


5 


83 .8 


55 


49 .2 


10 


82 .4 


60 


45 .0 


15 


80 .7 


65 


41 .3 


20 


77 .9 


70 


38 .1 


25 


74 .9 


75 


35 .5 


30 


70 .9 


80 


33 .6 


35 


67 .0 


85 


32 .4 


40 


62 .4 


90 


32 * 


45 


58 .0 







Latitude. Mean Temperature. 



* Perhaps the gradation of temperature would, in the higher latitudes, 
require a small modification. Instead of assuming 32^ as the medium 
at the Pole, it might be more exact to adopt 28°, or the melting point of 
the ice of sea-water. But the recent voyagers have registered the cold- 
ness in advancing northwards as much more intense. It is evident, how 



CLIMATE. 19 

The arithmetical mean, or 58°, corresponds to the 
middle latitude of 45° ; but the real mean of the 
temperature over the whole surface of the globe is 
67°, which should occur on the parallel of 35° 51 J'. 

The system of currents maintained in the atmo- 
sphere likewise contributes essentially, by its unceas- 
ing agency in transferring and dispersing heat, to 
prevent the excessive inequality of seasons in the 
higher latitudes. But the motions produced in such 
a vast mass of fluid must evidently follow, at long 
intervals, the accumulated causes which excite them. 
Hence probably the origin of those violent winds 
which, succeeding to the sultry warmth of summer 
and the sharp frosts of winter, prevail in the months 
of September and March, and are therefore called 
by seamen the Equinoctial Gales, In the Arctic 
seas nature has made a farther provision for correct- 
ing the excessive irregularity of the action of the 
sun's rays. This luminary, for several months in 
winter, is totally withdrawn from that dreary waste ; 
but, to compensate for his long absence, he continues 
during an equal period in summer to shine without 
interruption. Now, from a beautiful arrangement, 
the surface of the ocean itself, by its alternate 
freezing and thawing, presents a vast substratum, 
on which the excesses of heat and of cold in succes- 
sion are mutually spent. In ordinary cases, the 
superficial water, as it cools and therefore contracts, 
sinks down into the abyss by its superior gravity ; 
but when it grows warmer it expands, and conse- 
quently floats incumbent, communicating afterward 
its surplus heat with extreme slowness to the mass 
below. But the seas within the Arctic circle being 
always near the verge of congelation, at which limit 

ever, that their thermometrical observations must be affected by some 
latent and material inaccuracy. Were the mean temperature of the 
Arctic regions really below the point of salinp congelation, the annual 
formation of ice in those seas would exceed the quantity dissolved, and 
therefore the extension of the frozen fields would, contrary to fact, be con- 
stantly progressive. 



20 CLIMATE. 

water scarcely undergoes any sensible alteratichi of 
volume even from a considerable change of tempera- 
ture, the superficial stratum remains constantly 
stagnant, and exposed to receive all the variable im- 
pressions of the sweeping winds. The piercing cold 
of winter, therefore, spends its rage in freezing the 
salt water to a depth proportional to its intensity 
and continuance.* The prolonged warmth of sum- 
mer again is consumed in melting those fields of ice, 
eveiy inch of which in thickness requiring as much 
absorption of heat as would raise the temperature 
of a body of water 104 feet thick a whole degi'ee. 
The summer months are hence nearl}'- gone before 
the sun can dissolve the icy domes, and shoot with 
entire effect his slanting rays. It may be shown, 
that under the Pole the action of the solar light is, 
at the time of the solstice, one-fourth part greater 
than at the equator, and sufficient in the course of 
a day to melt a sheet of ice an inch and a halt 
thick. 

If horizontal winds serve to balance the imequal 
action of the solar beams over the surface of the 
globe, the rising and descending currents excited in 
the body of the atmosphere still more effectually 
maintain the equilibrium of day and night. After 
the ground has become heated by the direct illumi- 
nation of the sun, it warms the lowest portion of the 
incumbent air, which, being thus dilated, begins to 
ascend, and therefore occasions the descent of an 
equal portion of the fluid. But these vertical cur- 
rents, being once created, will continue their motion 
long after the primary cause has ceased to impel 
them, and may protract, during the night, the accu- 

* At Melville Island, in the latitude of 74° 45', Captain Parry ob- 
served ice to form of a tbickness from three to five inches, around the 
ship's sides, in the space of twenty-four hours ; and in one instance it 
gained in that time the thickness of 7^ inches, Fahrenheit's thermometer 
being then 12^ below zero. Such power of congelation, it might be com 
. puted, would require the full refrigerating action of a stratum of air at 
that temperature, and rather mo*"* f^*'> a mile in height. 



CLIMATE. 21 

mulation of chilled air on the surface of the earth. 
This effect is farther augmented, in general, by the 
frigorific impressions which are at all times darted 
downwards from a clear sky.* By the operation of 
this combined system, therefore, the diurnal vicissi- 
tudes of temperature are diminished in the temperate 
and torrid zones. Another consequence results 
from such rapid and continual interchange of the 
higher and lower strata, that the same absolute 
quantity of heat must obtain at every altitude in the 
atmosphere. 

This equal distribution of heat at all elevations 
is moulded, however, by another principle, which 
causes the regular gradation upwards of a decreasing 
temperature. In fact, air is found to have its capa- 
city for heat enlarged by rarefaction ; so that any 
portion of the fluid carried to the higher regions, 
where it by consequence expands, will have its tem- 
perature proportionally diminished. The decrease 
of temperature in ascending the atmosphere is not 
far from being uniform, at the rate of about one de 
gree for every hundred yards of elevation. Hence 
the limit of perpetual congelation forms a curve, 
which is nearly the same as the Companion of the 
Cycloid, bending gradually from the equator, re- 
verting its inflexure at the latitude of 45°, and 
grazing the surface at the Pole. The mean heights 
of eternal frost, under the equator, and at the lati- 
tudes of 30° and 60°, are respectively 15207, 11484, 
and 3818 feet. 

It is important to remark, that the heat of large 
collections of water will seldom agree precisely with 
the mean temperature corresponding to the latitude. 
The variable impressions received at the surface 
from the atmosphere will not, as on land, penetrate 

* See Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. iii. part i. p. 
177 ; or Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. viu. part 
'iL p. 465 



22 CLIMATE. 

slowly into the mass, and become mingled and 
equalized at a moderate depth. Heat is conducted 
through liquids chiefly by the internal play result- 
ing from their partial expansion. In the more tem- 
perate regions of the globe, the superficial waters of 
lakes or seas, as they grow warmer, and, therefore, 
specifically lighter, still remain suspended by their 
acquired buoyancy. But whenever they come to be 
chilled, they sufi'er contraction, and are precipitated 
by their greater density. Hence the deep water, 
both of lakes and of seas, is always considerably 
colder than what floats at the surface. The grada- 
tion of cold is distinctly traced to the depth of twenty 
fathoms, below which the diminished temperature 
continues nearly unifoiTn as far as the sounding- 
line can reach. In shallow seas however, the cold 
substratum of liquid is brought nearer to the top. 
The increasing coldness of water, drawn up from 
the depth of only a few fathoms, may hence indi- 
cate to the navigator who traverses the wide ocean 
his approach to banks or land. 

These principles, however, will not apply to the 
peculiar circumstances of the Arctic seas. Water 
differs essentially, in its expansion by heat, from 
mercury, oil, or alcohol : far from dilating uniformly, 
a property which fits the latter substances for the 
construction of thermometers, it swells from the 
point of congelation, or rather a very few degrees 
above it, with a rapid progression, to that of boiling. 
Near the limit of its greatest contraction, the volume 
of water is scarcely affected at all by any alteration 
of heat. When the surface of the ocean is depressed 
to a temperature between 28 and 44 (^egrees of 
Fahrenheit's scale, it will remain almost stagnant, 
and therefore exposed to the full impression of ex- 
ternal cold. Hence the Polar seas are always ready, 
under the action of any frosty wind, to suff*er conge- 
lation. The annual variations of the weather are in 
those seas expended on the superficial waters, with- 



CLIMATE. 23 

out disturbing the vast abyss below. Contrary to 
what takes place under milder skies, the water drawn 
up from a considerable depth is often warmer within 
the Arctic circle than what lies on the surface. The 
floating" ice accordingly begins to melt generally on 
the under side, from the slow communication of the 
heat sent upwards. 

These deductions are confirmed by the nice results 
of astronomical observations. Any change in the 
temperature of our globe would occasion a corres- 
ponding mutation of volume, and consequently an 
alteration in the momentum of the revolving mass. 
Thus, if, from the accession of heat, the earth had 
gained only a millionth part of linear expansion, 
it would have required an increase of five times propor- 
tionally more momentum to maintain the same rota- 
tion. On this supposition, therefore, the diurnal re- 
volution would have been retarded at the rate of three 
seconds in a week. But the length of the day has 
certainly not varied one second in a year since the 
age of Hipparchus ; for we cannot imagine that the 
ancient observations could ever deviate an hour from 
the truth. We may hence conclude that, in the lapse 
of three thousand years, the mass of our globe has 
not acquired the ten-millionth part of expansion 
which the smallest fraction of a degree of heat would 
have communicated. 

The accumulation of ice on the surface of the 
ocean would likewise have occasioned a prolongation 
of the length of the day. This effect would no 
doubt be diminished under the Arctic circle, from 
the proximity of the glacial protuberance to the axis ; 
but its influence would cause a notable difl'erence. 

After the continued action of the sun has at last 
melted away the great body of ice, a short and du- 
bious interval of warmth occurs. In the space of a 
few weeks, only visited by slanting and enfeebled 
rays, frost again resumes his tremendous sway. It 
begins to snow as early as August, and the whole 



'24 CLIMATE. 

ground is covered, to the depth of two or three feet^ 
before the month of October. Along the shores and 
the bays, the fresh water, poured from rivulets, or 
drained from the thawing of former collections of 
snow, becomes quickly converted into solid ice. As 
the cold augments, the air deposites its moisture in 
the form of a fog, which freezes into a fine gossamer 
netting or spicular icicles, dispersed through the 
atmosphere and extremely minute, that might seem 
to pierce and excoriate the skin. The hoar frost set- 
tles profusely, in fantastic clusters, on every promi- 
nence. The whole surface of the sea steams like a 
lime-kiln, — an appearance called the frost-smoke, 
caused, as in other instances of the production of 
vapour, by the water's being still relatively warmer 
than the incumbent air. At length the dispersion of 
the mist, and consequent clearness of the atmosphere, 
announce that the upper stratum of the sea itself 
has cooled to the same standard ; a sheet of ice 
spreads quickly over the smooth expanse, and often 
gains the thickness of an inch in a single night. The 
darkness of a prolonged winter now broods impene- 
trably over the frozen continent, unless the moon 
chance at times to obtrude her faint rays, which only 
discover the horrors and wide desolation of the scene. 
The wretched settlers, covered with a load of bear- 
skins, remain crowded and immured in their hut, 
every chink of which they carefully stop against the 
piercing external cold ; and, cowering about the stove 
or the lamp, they seek to doze away the tedious 
night. Their slender stock of provisions, though 
kept in the same apartment, is often frozen so hard 
as to require to be cut by a liatchet. The whole of 
the inside of their hat becomes lined with a thick 
crust of ice ; and, if they happen for an instant to 
open a window, the moisture of the confined air is 
immediately precipitated in the form of a shower of 
snow. As the frost continues to penetrate deeper, 
the rocks are heard at a distance to split with loud 



*^lgm 



CLIMATE. 25 

explosions. The sleep of death seems to wrap up 
the scene in utter and oblivious ruin.* 

At length the sun reappears above the horizon ; 
but his languid beams rather betray the wide waste 
than brighten the prospect. By degrees, however, 
the farther progress of the frost is checked. In the 
month of May, the famished inmates venture to leave 
their hut, in quest of fish on the margin of the sea. 
As the sun acquires elevation, his power is greatly 
increased. The snow gradually wastes away — the 
ice dissolves apace — and vast fragments of it, de- 
tached from the cliffs, and undermined beneath, pre« 
cipitate themselves on the shores with the crash of 
thunder. The ocean is now unbound, and its icy 
dome broken up with tremendous rupture. The 
enormous fields of ice, thus set afloat, are, by the 
violence of winds and currents, again dissevered and 
dispersed. Sometimes, impelled in opposite direc- 
tions they approach, and strike with a mutual shock, 
like the crush of worlds, — sufficient, if opposed, to 
reduce to atoms, in a moment, the proudest monu- 
ments of human power. It is impossible to picture 
a situation more awful than that of the poor crew 
of a whaler, Avho see their frail bark thus fatally 
enclosed, expecting immediate and inevitable de- 
struction. 

Before the end of June, the shoals of ice in the 
Arctic seas are commonly divided, scattered, and 
dissipated. But the atmosphere is then almost con- 
tinually damp, and loaded with vapour. At this sea- 
son of the year, a dense fog generally covers the 

* " The sound of voices which, during the cold weather, could be 
heard at a much greater distance than usual, served now and then to 
break the silence which reigned around us ; a silence far different from 
that peaceable composure which characterizes the landscape of a culti- 
vated country ; it was the death-like stillness of the most dreary deso- 
lation, and the total absence of animated existence." — Parry. During 
the winter at Melville Island, people were heard conversing at the dis- 
tance of a mile. This was no doubt owing partly to the density of the 
frigid atmosphere ; but chiefly to the absence of all obstruction in a scene 
of universal calm and darkness. 

c 



26 CLIMATE. 

surface af the sea, of a milder temperature indeed 
than the frost-smoke, yet produced by the inversion 
of the same cause. The lower stratum of air, as it 
successively touches the colder body of water, be- 
comes chilled, and thence disposed to deposite its 
moisture. Such thick fogs, with mere gleams of 
clear weather, infesting the northern seas during the 
greater part of the summer, render their navigation 
extremely dangerous. In the course of the month 
of July, the superficial water is at last brought to an 
equilibrium of temperature with the air, and the sun 
Qow shines out with a bright and dazzling radiance. 
For some days before the close of the summer, such 
excessive heat is accumulated in the bays and shel- 
tered spots, that the tar and pitch are sometimes 
melted, and run down the ship's sides. 

Notwithstanding the shortness of the summer in 
Ihe high latitudes, the air on land becomes often op- 
pressively sultry. This excessive heat, being con- 
joined with moisture, engenders clouds of mosqui- 
toes, from the stings of w^hich the Laplanders are 
forced to seek refuge in their huts, where they enve- 
lope themselves in dense smoke. Humidity marks 
the general character of the Arctic regions, which 
are covered during the greater part of the year with 
chilling fogs. The sky seldom appears clear, except 
for a few weeks in winter, when the cold at the sur- 
face becomes most intense. Yet the rigour of that 
season is not felt so severely as the thermometer 
would indicate. When the temperature is lowest, 
the air is commonly calm, and, therefore, abstracts 
less heat from the body than the exposure to a strong 
wind of much inferior coldness. The providence of 
the natives serves to mitigate the hardships they have 
to suifer. The Esquimaux, on the approach of win- 
ter, cut the hard ice into tall square blocks, with 
which they construct regular spacious domes, con- 
nected with other smaller ones, for the various pur- 
poses of domestic economy They shape the inside 



CLIMATE. 27 

with care, and give it an even, glossy surface by the 
aiFusion of water. The snowy wall soon becomes 
a solid concrete mass, which, being a slow conductor, 
checks the access of cold, while it admits a sufficient 
portion of light. It may also be remarked, that the 
external darkness prevails only during a part of the 
day. Since twilight obtains whenever the sun is 
less depressed than 18 degrees below the horizon, the 
limits of entire obscuration occur in the latitudes of 
84^*^ and 484° ; in the former at midday in the win- 
ter solstice, and in the latter at midnight in the sol- 
stice of summer. Between these extremes the at- 
mosphere at the opposite seasons glows to a greater ' 
or a less extent, from the middle of the day or of 
the night. Accordingly, Captain Parry's party, 
during their detention at Melville Island, in the lati- 
tude of 74'=' 40', found, that in clear weather, about 
noon, they could easily, in the depth of winter, read 
the smallest print on deck. This position corres- 
ponds to the alternating parallel of 58° 20', which 
nearly reaches Orkney, where the transparency of 
the nights in the height of summer is well known. 
The approach of twilight is, besides, advanced in the 
frozen regions by the superior refractive power of a 
very dense atmosphere. The horizontal refraction 
usually raises the lower limb of the sun and moon 
about the twelfth part of their diameters, and often 
gives it a wavy and fantastic outline. Hence the 
reappearance of those luminaries is hastened within 
the Arctic circle, though the quantity of anticipation 
has been much exaggerated. 

The ice which obstructs the navigation of the 
Arctic seas consists of two very different kinds ; the 
one produced by the congelation of fresh, and the 
other by that of salt water. In those inhospitable 
tracts, the snow which annually falls on the islands 
or continents, being again dissolved by the progress 
of the summer's heat, pours forth numerous rills and 
limpid streams, which collect along the indented 



28 CLIMATE. 

siiores, and in the deep bays enclosed by precipitous 
rocks. There, this clear and gelid water soon 
freezes, and every successive year supplies an addi- 
tional investing crust, till, after the lapse, perhaps, of 
several centuries, the icy mass rises at last to the 
size and aspect of a mountain, commensurate with 
the elevation of the adjoining cliffs. The melting 
of the snow, w^hich is afterward deposited on such 
enormous blocks, likewise contributes to their 
growth; and, by filling up the accidental holes or 
crevices, it renders the whole structure compact and 
uniform. Meanwhile, the principle of destruction 
has already begun its operations. The ceaseless 
agitation of the sea gradually wears and undermines 
the base of the icy mountain, till, at length, by the 
action of its own accumulated weight, when it has 
perhaps attained an altitude of a thousand, or even 
two thousand feet, it is torn from its frozen chains, 
and precipitated, with tremendous plunge, into the 
abyss below. This mighty launch now floats like a 
lofty island on the ocean ; till, driven southwards by 
winds and currents it insensibly wastes and dissolves 
away in the wide Atlantic. 

Such I conceive, to be the real origin of the icy 
mountains oi icebergs, entirely similar in their forma- 
tion to the glaciers which occur on the flanks of the 
Alps and the Pyrenees. They consist of a clear, 
compact, and solid ice, which has the fine green tint 
verging to blue, which ice or water, when very pure 
and of a sufficient depth, always assumes. From 
the cavities of these icebergs, the crews of the 
northern whalers are accustomed, by means of a 
hose, or flexible tube of canvass, to fill their casks 
easily with the finest and softest water. Of the 
same species of ice, the fragments which are picked 
up as they float on the surface of the ocean yield the 
adventurous navigator the most refreshing beverage.* 

* The water "v^hich flows from those Arctic glaciers becomes frozen 
again on the approach of winter, and forms along the coast a thick stra« 




Icebergs.— [p. 28.] 



^ 



CLIMATE. 29 

It was long disputed among the learned, whether 
the waters of the ocean are capable of being con- 
gealed ; and many frivolous and absurd arguments, 
of course, were advanced to prove the impossibility 
of the fact. But the question is now completely 
resolved ; and the freezing of sea-water is esta- 
blished both by observation and experiment. The 
product, however, is an imperfect sort of ice, easily 
distinguishable from the result of a regular crystal- 
lization: it is porous, incompact, and imperfectly 
diaphanous. It consists of spicular shoots, or thin 
flakes, which detain within their interstices the 
stronger brine ; and its granular spongy texture has, 
in fact, the appearance of congealed syrup, or what 
the confectioners call water-ice. This saline ice can, 
therefore, never yield pure water; yet, if the strong 
brine imprisoned in it be first suffered to drain off 
slowly, the loose mass that remains will melt into a 
brackish liquid, which in some cases may be deemed 
potable.* 

To congeal sea-water of the ordinary saltness, or 
containing nearly the thirtieth part of its weight of 
saline jpaatter, it requires not an extreme cold ; this 
process taking effect about the 27th degree on Fah- 
renheit's scale, or only five degrees below the freez- 
ing-point of fresh water. Within the Arctic circle, 
therefore, the surface of the ocean being never much 
warmer, is, in the decline of the summer, soon cooled 
down to the limit at which congelation commences. 
About the end of July, or the beginning of August, 
a sheet of ice, perhaps an inch thick, is formed in the 



turn of blue solid ice, imbedded in the beach, and from six to ten feet 
under the surface. 

* Captain Parry remarked, that the superficial water near melting 
ice had scarcely any trace of saltness. In other observations made 
about the end of July, he discovered the water at the surface to contain 
©nly the 550th part of its weight of salt ; but under ten fathoms the pro- 
portion had increased to the 39th, and at the depth of 300 fathoms to the 
^th part. The friable ice of sea-water was found to hold the 115th part 
0f salt. 

C 2 



30 CLIMATE. 

space of a single night. The frost now maintains 
ascendency, and shoots its increasing energy in all 
directions, till it has covered the whole extent of 
those seas with a solid vault to the depth of several 
feet. But, on the return of spring, the penetrating 
rays of the sun gradually melt or soften that icy 
floor, and render its substance friable and easily dis- 
rupted. The first strong wind, creating a swell in 
the ocean, then breaks up the vast continent into 
large fields, which are afterward shivered into frag- 
ments by their mutual collision. This generally 
happens early in the month of June; and a few 
weeks are commonly sufficient to disperse and dis- 
solve the floating ice. The sea is at last open, for a • 
short and dubious interval, to the pursuits of the ad- 
venturous mariner. 

While icebergs are thus the slow growth of ages, 
the fields or shoals of saline ice are annually formed 
and destroyed. The ice generated from melted snow 
is hard, pellucid, and often swells to enormous height 
and dimensions. But the concretion of salt water 
wants solidity, clearness, and strength, and never 
rises to any very considerable thickness. It seldom 
floats during more than part of the year ; though, in 
some cold season, the scattered fragments may be 
surprised by the early frost, and preserved till the 
following summer. 

The whale-fishers enumerate several varieties of 
the salt-water ice. A very wide expanse of it they 
call ?i field, and one of smaller dimensions 2ifloe. 
When a field is dissevered by a subaqueous or grown 
swell, it breaks into numerous pieces, seldom ex- 
ceeding forty or fifty yards in diameter, which, taken 
collectively, are termed a pack. This pack again, 
when of a broad shape, is called a patch ; and, when 
much elongated, a stream. The packs of ice are 
crowded and heaped together by violent winds ; but 
they again separate and spread asunder in calm 
weather. If a ship can sail freely through the float- 



CLIMATE. 31 

ing pieces of ice, it is called drift-ice ; and the ice 
itself is said to be loose or open. When, from the 
effect of abrasion, the larger blocks of ice are crum- 
bled into minute fragments, this collection is called 
brash-ice. A portion of ice rising above the common 
level is termed a hummock, being produced by the 
squeezing of one piece over another. These hum- 
mocks or protuberances break the uniform surface 
of the ice, and give it a most diversified and fantastic 
appearance. They are numerous in the heavy packs, 
and along the edges of ice-fields, reaching to the 
height of thirty feet. The term sludge is applied by 
the sailors to the soft and incoherent crystals which 
the frost forms when it first attacks the ruffled sur- 
face of the ocean. As these increase, they have 
some effect, like oil, to still the secondary waves ; but 
they are prevented from coalescing into a continuous 
sheet, by the agitation which still prevails ; and they 
form small discs, rounded by continual attrition, 
and scarcely three inches in diameter, called pan- 
cakes* Sometimes these again unite into circular 
pieces, perhaps a foot thick, and many yards in cir- 
cumference. 

The fields and other collections of floating ice are 
often discovered at a great distance, by that singular 
appearance on the verge of the horizon, which the 
Dutch seamen have termed ice-blink. It is a stratum 
of lucid whiteness, occasioned evidently by the glare 
of light reflected obliquely from the surface of the 
ice against the opposite atmosphere. This shining 
streak, which looks always brightest in clear weather, 
indicates, to the experienced navigator, 20 or 30 
miles beyond the limit of direct vision, not only the 
extent and figure, but even the quality of the ice. 
The blink from packs of ice appears of a pure white, 
while that which is occasioned by snow-fields has 
some tinge of yellow. 

The mountains of hard and perfect ice are the 
gradual production, perhaps, of many centuries. 



32 CLIMATE. 

Along the western coast of Greenland, prolonged 
into Davis's Strait, they form an immense rampart, 
which presents to the mariner a sublime spectacle, 
resembling, at a distance, whole groups of churches, 
mantling castles, or fleets under full sail. E very- 
year, but especially in hot seasons, they are partially 
detached from their seats, and whelmed into the 
deep sea. In Davis's Strait those icebergs appear 
the most frequent : and about Disco Bay, where the 
soundings exceed 300 fathoms, masses of such enor- 
mous dimensions are met with, that the Dutch seamen 
compare them to cities, and often bestow on them 
the familiar names of Amsterdam or Haerlem. They 
are carried towards the Atlantic by the current which 
generally flows from the north-east, and after they 
"jeach the warmer water of the lower latitudes they 
rapidly dissolve, and finally disappear, probably in 
the space of a few months. 

The blocks of fresh-water ice appear black as they 
float ; but show a fine emerald or beryl hue when 
brought up on the deck. Though perfectly transpa- 
rent like crystal, they sometimes enclose threads or 
streamlets of air-bubbles, extricated in the act of 
congelation. This pure ice, being only a fifteenth 
part lighter than fresh water, must consequently 
project about one-tenth as it swims on the sea. An 
iceberg of 2000 feet in height would therefore, after 
it floated, still rise 200 feet above the surface of the 
water. Such, perhaps, may be considered as nearly 
the extreme dimensions. Those mountains of ice 
may even acquire more elevation at a distance from 
land, both from the snow which falls on them, and 
from the copious vapours which precipitate and con- 
geal on their surface. But in general they are carried 
forward by the current which sets from the north- 
east into the Atlantic, where, bathed in a warmer 
fluid, they rapidly waste and dissolve. It may be 
shown by experiment, that if the water in which 
they float had only the temperature of 42^, the mass 



CLIMATE. 3S 

of ice would lose the thickness of an inch every 
hour, or two feet in a day. Supposing the surface 
of the sea to be at 52*>, the daily diminution of thick- 
ness would be doubled, and would therefore amount 
to four feet. An iceberg having 600 feet of total 
elevation would hence, on this probable estimate, 
require 150 days for its dissolution. But the melting 
of the ice would be greatly accelerated if the mass 
were impelled through the water by the action of 
winds. A velocity of only a mile in an hour would 
triple the ordinary effect. Hence, though large 
bodies of ice are often found near the banks of New- 
foundland, they seldom advance farther, or pass 
beyond the 48th degree of latitude. Within the 
Arctic regions those stupendous blocks remain, by 
their mere inertia, so fixed on the water, as com- 
monly to serve for the mooring of vessels employed 
in the whale-fishery. In such cases, however, it is a 
necessary precaution to lengthen the cables, and ride 
at some distance from the frozen cliff; because the 
fragments of ice, which the seamen term calves, are 
frequently detached from the under part of the mass, 
and, darting upwards, acquire such a velocity in 
their ascent, that they would infallibly strike holes 
into the ship's bottom. 

The ice produced from salt water is whitish, po- 
rous, and almost opaque. It is so dense, from the 
quantity of strong brine enclosed in its substance, 
that, when floating in the sea, it projects only one- 
fiftieth part above the surface. The porous saline 
ice has a variable thickness, yet seldom exceeding 
six feet. But this saline ice w^hich, during the 
greater part of the year covers the Arctic seas, is 
annually formed and destroyed ; a small portion of 
it only, and at certain seasons, escaping the general 
wreck. The thaw commonly lasts about three 
months; and during that time the heat of the solar 
rays, which, though oblique, yet act with unceasing 
energy, whether applied directly or through the inter- 



34 CLIMATE. 

veiition of the air oi the water, is sufficient for the 
dissolution of all the ice produced in the course of 
the autumn, the winter, and the spring. It may be 
proved by experiment that, under the Pole itself, the 
power of the sun at the solstice could, in the space 
of a week, melt a stratum of five inches of ice. We 
may hence fairly compute the annual effect to be 
sufficient for thawing to the depth of forty inches. 
It should likewise be observed, that, owing to the 
prevailing haziness of the atmosphere in the northern 
latitudes, those singular cold emanations which 
always dart from an azure sky, and m the more tem- 
perate climates diminish the calorific action of the 
sun often by one-fifth part, can scarcely exist. On 
this account, perhaps the estimate of the annual de- 
struction of Polar ice may be swelled to a thickness 
of four feet. 

As heat is absorbed in the process of thawing, so 
it is again evolved in the act of congelation. The 
annual formation and destruction of ice within the 
Arctic circle, is hence a beautiful provision of Nature 
for mitigating the excessive inequality of tempera- 
ture. Had only dry land been there opposed to the 
sun, it would have been absolutely scorched by his 
incessant beams in summer, and pinched in the dark- 
ness of winter by the most intense and penetrating 
cold. None of the animal or vegetable tribes could 
have at all supported such extremes. But in the ac- 
tual arrangement, the surplus heat of summer is 
spent in melting away the ice ; and its deficiency in 
winter is partly supplied by the influence of the pro- 
gress of congelation. As long as ice remains to thaw, 
or water to freeze, the temperature of the atmos- 
phere can never vary beyond certain limits. Such 
is the harmony of the system ; and all experience 
and observation forbid us to believe it to be subject 
to any radical change. Some years may chance to 
form more ice than others, or to melt more away ; 
but it were idle to expect any thins like a general or 



CLIMATE. 35 

permanent disruption of the glacial crust which binds 
the regions of the north. Even were this ice once 
removed, a similar collection would soon succeed, 
since it is always the effect, and not the cause, of the 
disposition of the atmosphere, which it really serves 
to temper. We should be guilty of the most vicious 
reasoning in a circle, if we maintained that ice first 
cooled the air, and that this cold air next increased 
the fields of ice. 

But, whatever may be the vicissitudes of the Polar 
ice, they cannot, in any sensible manner, affect the 
climates of the lower latitudes. The whole circum- 
jacent space where frost holds his reign, bears a very 
small proportion to the surface of the northern 
hemisphere. Reckoning from the parallel of sixty 
degrees, it would not exceed the eighth part ; but, 
since the gelid region hardly extends below the lati- 
tude of seventy-five degrees, it may be stated at the 
thirty-second part of the hemisphere. On the sup- 
position, therefore, that the Arctic cold were all 
transferred and infused into the atmosphere of the 
south, it could yet produce no visible alteration of 
climate. 

Even if we imagined with Mr. Scoresby, that, 
during the years 1816 and 1817, two thousand square 
leagues of ice have disappeared in the Greenland 
seas between the parallels of seventy-four and eighty 
degrees, this extent would still scarcely exceed half 
the surface of Ireland. It may be calculated, that 
the loss of heat on our globe, occasioned by a total 
eclipse of the sun, reckoning this only equivalent to 
a complete obscuration for the space of a single hour, is 
as much as would be absorbed by the thawing of a cir- 
cle of ice 500 miles in diameter, and 150 feet thick. 
This quantity surpasses at least sixty times the ice- 
fields dispersed from Greenland, allowing them the 
mean thickness of thirty feet ; and yet the tempera- 
ture of the air is never depressed more than a degree 
or two during the continuance of any solar eclipse. 



S6 CLIMATE* 

But the idea is quite chimerical, that any winds 
could ever transport the Polar influence to our shores. 
It may be proved, from the results of accurate ex- 
periment, that a current of air flowing over a warmei 
surface, whether of land or water, becomes, in the 
space of an hour, penetrated with the same tempe- 
rature through a stratum of eighty feet ; though the 
imit of actual contact, or of mutual attrition, is con- 
ined to a surface not exceeding the 500th part of an 
mch in thickness. If we assign to it the height of 
1 mile, which is a most ample allowance, it would 
ose aU its sharpness, and acquire the standard heat 
n the course of sixty-six hours. Admitting this 
nnd to travel at the rate even of twenty miles each 
lour, it would consequently spend all its frigorific 
iction in a tract of 1320 miles. The gales from the 
remotest north must thus discharge their store of 
'5old into the German Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. Nor 
icjould such impressions, though continued through a 
course of ages, have the smallest power to chill the 
superficial water ; for the moment any portion of this 
was cooled, it would, from its increased density, sink 
down into the vast abyss. The surface would not 
be affected till after the cooling had, in its progress, 
pervaded the whole mass from the bottom upwards. 
According to the calculations of Laplace, founded on 
a comparison of the theory of tides with actual ob- 
servation, the mean depth of the ocean exceeds ten 
English miles. Supposing, therefore, a wind blowing 
from some northerly point, and ten degrees colder 
than the water, were to sweep over the Atlantic six 
months every year, at the rate of fifteen miles an 
hour, it would take 220 years to cool that vast body 
of water only a single degree. 

Some persons have imagined that the mountains 
or islands of ice, which are occasionally drifted into 
the Atlantic Ocean, must be sufficient, by their frigo- 
rific influence, to modify the character of our climate. 
One of the first who advanced that opinion was the 



CLIMATE. 37 

ingenious Richard Bradley, fellow of the Royal So- 
ciety, and professor of botany in the university of 
Cambridge. In "A Survey of the Ancient Hus- 
bandry and Gardening, collected from the Greek and 
Roman Writers," printed in octavo at London in 
1725, he introduces the following remarkable pas- 
sage : — 

*' I the rather mention the case of winds becoming 
cold by mixing with the effluvia of snow or ice, be- 
cause I have made some remarks upon the tempest- 
uous weather, which often happens about the end of 
May, or in June, which has in all my observations 
been brought in by westerly winds ; and again, I as 
surely find, that at such times large islands of ice and 
snow are passing to the southward in the Western 
Ocean, as I have been informed by several captains 
of ships that were then coming from our plantations 
to England. Some of these islands are so large as 
to measure sixty miles in length, and yielding so 
great a vapour, that for a day's voyage on one side of 
them, the weather has been so hazy that the mari- 
ners could not discover what they were ; and this 
was accompanied with so much cold, that they ima- 
gined they had mistaken in their accounts, and got 
several degrees too far towards the north ; but a day 
or two explained the matter, and gave them an op- 
portunity of surveying what they had been so much 
surprised at. Now, considering the extraordinary 
heat of the sun at the season these appear, the va- 
pour must be very considerable that rises from them ; 
and it is no wonder then, that, as it expands itself, it 
presses the air with violence enough to cause tem- 
pests and carry cold along with it." 

But a little reflection will convince us that such 
remote influence on our climate must be quite insig- 
nificant. At a very wide estimation, the surface 
of ice exposed to the winds could never exceed the 
thousandth part of the whole expanse of the Atlantic 
Ocean ; consequently the general temperature of the 
D 



38 CLIMATE. 

air would not be altered the fortieth part of a degree. 
Nor could this minute impression be wafted to our 
shores, being invariably spent in the len^h of the 
voyage. The opinion which Mr. Bradley entertained 
near a hundred years ago might have been tolerated 
in the infancy of physical science ; but that the same 
notion should be revived, and proclaimed with con- 
fidence at this day, may well excite surprise. 

These reasonings, which suggested themselves on 
the occasion of the sailing of the first expedition sent 
by government to explore the Arctic seas, have been 
singularly confirmed by the results of the late 
daring- voyages. Captain Parry, by the most vigi- 
lant exertions, indeed, succeeded, during the brief 
interval of an open season, to advance from Baffin's 
Bay, by Lancaster Sound, above 400 miles west- 
ward, through floating masses of ice, on the pa- 
rallel of 75 degrees; but this distance is probably 
not the third part of the whole space between the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. All the subsequent at- 
tempts of that able navigator to penetrate any farther 
in the same direction have proved unsuccessful; and 
his last arduous scheme of reaching the Pole, by 
dragging boats over an expanse of rough and broken 
ice, utterly failed. The utmost labour and incited 
exertions of the crews scarcely enabled him to pro- 
ceed, in 1827, three degrees northward from Spitz- 
bergen, and attain the latitude of 83*^ 45', not far be- 
yond the usual resort of the Greenland whalers. 
Captain Weddell, without the stimulant of national 
reward, had, four years before, the resolution to 
penetrate to a very great height in the opposite hemi- 
sphere, which is always considered colder and less 
accessible than the northern, having advanced to the 
latitude of 74° 15' in an open sea. 

On the h5q)othesis that the quantities of ice which 
encumber the Arctic seas have been accumulating 
for a long succession of years, it is assumed as a 
fact that throughout Europe a milder and more 



CLIMATE. 39 

genial climate had formerly prevailed. A closer in- 
spection of the details, however, will show this sup- 
Eosition to be destitute of any solid support. One 
ears continual complaints, indeed, of the altered 
condition of the seasons, especially from elderly per- 
sons, whose bodily frame has become more suscepti- 
ble to the impressions of cold ; but similar lamenta- 
tions have been repeated by the poets and the vulgar 
from the earliest times. If we listened implicitly to 
such querulous declaimers, we should believe that 
nature has spent all her fires, and is hastening fast 
into decay. Immense forests, it is said, anciently 
clothed the highest tracts of this island and other 
northern countries, where scarcely a tree can now 
be made to grow. The period of vintage was in 
former ages several weeks earlier in France than at 
present ; vineyards were planted during the time of 
the Romans in various parts of the south of England, 
where at this day even hops are raised with diffi- 
culty ; and the sides of many hills in Scotland bear 
evident traces of the plough, which have been long 
since abandoned irretrievably to the dusky heath. 

But, in answer to such allegations, it may be ob- 
served, that a patch of wood will not thrive in cold 
situations, merely for want of the shelter which is 
afforded by extensive plantations. In Sweden and 
Norway, which are mostly covered with natural 
forests, it has become an object of police to prevent 
their indiscriminate destruction. The timber in those 
sylvan countries is cut at stated periods of its growth, 
and in detached portions ; the vacant spaces being 
left as nurseries, embosomed amid an expanse of tall 
trees. Some places in Sweden, where the forests 
have been accidentally destroyed by fire, present the 
image of sterility and of wide desolation. 

It is probable that the vines grown in ancient times 
were coarser and hardier plants than those which 
are now cultivated. A similar observation extends 
to all the products of gardening. A succession of 



40 CLIMATE. 

diligent culture softens the character of the vegeta- 
ble tribes, and renders them more delicate, while it 
heightens the flavour of their fruit. The Roman 
soldiers stationed in Britain would naturally prefer 
wine, their accustomed beverage, however harsh and 
poor, to the cervisia, or unpalatable ale brewed by 
the rude arts of the natives. 

The marks of tillage left on our northern hills 
prove only the wretched state of agriculture at a re- 
mote period. For want of a proper system of rota- 
tion, and the due application of manure, the starving 
tenantry were then tempted to tear up with the plough 
every virgin spot they could find, and, after extract- 
ing from it a pitiful crop or two of oats, to abandon 
it to a lasting sterility. The cattle in those days, 
having no sort of provender through the winter but 
dry straw, were quite feeble and exhausted in the 
spring. The soil, too, was very stiff, from want 
of repeated and seasonable tillage. Under such cir- 
cumstances, it affords no proof of any great heat, 
that the slothful peasants, oppressed with a load of 
clothes, usually began their operations in the field 
before sunrise, while preparing the ground for the re- 
ception of the barley-seed. 

It is very difficult to ascertain the precise condi- 
tion of the weather in distant ages. The thermome- 
ter was not invented till 1590, by the celebrated 
Sanctorio ; nor was that valuable instrument re- 
duced to a correct standard before the year 1724, by 
the skill of Fahrenheit. We have hence no observa- 
tions of temperature which go farther back than a 
century. Prior to this period, we must glean our in- 
formation from the loose and scanty notices which 
are scattered through the old chronicles relative to 
the state of the harvest, the quality of the vintage, 
or the endurance of frost and snow in the winter. 
Great allowance, however, should be made for the 
spirit of exaggeration and the love of the marvellous 
which infect all those rude historical monuments* 



CLIMATE. 41 

On glancing over the incidental notices of the state 
of the weather, it is obvious that no material change 
has taken place for the last thousand years in the 
climate of Europe ; but we may conjecture that it 
has gradually acquired rather a milder character ; at 
least its excessive severity appears on the whole to 
be of rarer occurrence. The weather seems not to 
affect any precise course of succession, although 
two or more years of remarkable heat or cold often 
follow consecutively ; yet there can be no doubt, that 
series of atmospheric changes, however complicated 
and perplexing, are as determinate in their nature as 
the revolutions of the celestial bodies. When the 
science of meteorology is more advanced, we shall, 
perhaps, by discovering a glimpse of those vast 
cycles, which result from the varied aspects of the 
sun combined with the feebler influence of the moon, 
be at length enabled to predict with some degree of 
probability, the condition of future seasons. The in- 
termediate period of nine years, or the semi-revolu- 
tion nearly of the lunar nodes and apogee, proposed 
by Toaldo, seems not to be altogether destitute of 
foundation. Thus, of the years remarkably cold, 
1622 was succeeded, after the interval of four periods 
or 36 years, by 1658, whose severity lasted through 
the following year. The same interval brings us to 
1695, and five periods more extend to 1740, — a very fa- 
mous cold year ; three periods now come down to 1767, 
nine years more to 1776, and eighteen years more to 
1794, the cold continuing through 1795. Of the hot 
years it may be observed, that four periods of nine 
years extend from 1616 to 1652, and three such again 
to 1679. From 1701 to 1718 there was an interval of 
seventeen years, or very nearly two periods, while 
three periods reach to 1745, another period to 1754, 
and one more falls on 1763 ; and from 1779 to 1788, 
there are just nine years. The year 1818 would 
therefore correspond to 1701, 1719, and 1746, and 
consequently very nearly to 1718. Again, the years 
D2 



435 CLmATE. 

1784, 1793, 1802, and 1811, at the intervals of succes- 
sive periods, were all of them remarkably warm. A 
cycle of 54 years, including therefore six of these 
subordinate periods, has lately been proposed with 
much confidence, but apparently on slender grounds. 

If the climate had undergone any real change in 
the more temperate parts of Europe, a corresponding 
alteration, with very distinct features, must inevitably 
have taken place in the Arctic regions. But a dispas- 
sionate inquiry discovers no circumstances which at 
all clearly point at such a conclusion. On this head 
we may readily satisfy ourselves, by a short retro- 
spect of the prmcipal facts which have been recorded 
by voyagers. 

Greenland, in its position and general outline, ap- 
pnears to resemble the vast promontory of South Ame- 
rica. From Cape Farewell, a small island, divided 
from the shore by a narrow inlet called Staaten 
Hoek, in the latitude of 60°, it stretches, in a north- 
westerly direction, about 200 miles to Cape Desola- 
tion, and then nearly northward to Good Haven, in 
latitude 65°, where it inchnes nearly a point towards 
the east, as far as the island of Disco, which occupies 
a spacious bay, between the latitudes of 67° and 71°, 
in Davis's Strait. Thence the continent extends 
almost due north, beyond the latitude of 76°, till it is 
lost in the recesses of Baffin's Bay. On the other 
side, Greenland stretches about north-north-east, 300 
miles, but with a great sinuosity, till nearly op- 
posite to Iceland, in the latitude of 64°, and now 
advances almost north-east to the latitude of 75°, 
when, suddenly bending to the north, it holds this di- 
rection beyond Spitzbergen and the latitude of 80°. 
The coast is every where bold and rocky, like that 
of Norway ; and the interior of the country consists 
of clustering lofty mountains, covered with eternal 
snows. But the western side, which forms Davis's 
Strait, is indented with numerous bights, creeks, and 
fiords or firths, which, for the space of two or three 
months each year, look verdant, and yield tolerable 



CLIMATE. 4^ 

pasturage. The eastern shore, again, which pro- 
perly bounds the Greenland seas, can rarely be ap- 
proached by the whalers, as the accumulated stream 
of ice, which in summer is constantly drifting from 
the north-east, creates a formidable barrier. The 
position of this icy boundary, though nearly parallel 
to the land, is not absolutely fixed, but varies within 
certain limits in different years. The late survey 
by Mr. Scoresby was therefore not very satisfactory. 
In Davis's Strait, the whalers generally resort to 
Disco Bay, or push farther north; sometimes as far 
as the latitude of 76°, to the variable margin of the 
great icy continent. On the other side of Green- 
land, about the meridian of eight degrees east from 
Greenwich, the ice, in warm seasons, retires to the 
latitude of 80°, beyond Hakluyt's Headland, at the 
extremity of Spitzbergen ; while, at other times, it 
advances as far south on the same line as the lati- 
tude of 70°, enveloping the whole of that island, but 
forming below it a wide bay, called the Whalefisher^s 
Bight, on the parallel of Bear Island. The former 
are called open, and the latter close seasons. In open 
seasons, the ships employed in these fisheries find a 
channel from 20 to 50 leagues wide, through which 
they shoot forward along the shores of Spitzbergen, 
till they reach the latitude of 78° or 79°, where the 
whales are most abundant. The chase of these ani- 
mals, in the Greenland seas at least, seldom lasts 
above two months, commencing generally at the end 
of April, and terminating with June, when they usu 
ally disappear, and the prevalence of dense fogs ren- 
ders the navigation very dangerous. In Davis's 
Strait, the fishery continues often for two, or even 
three months longer. Mr. Scoresby thinks it were 
better if our Greenland ships, like the Dutch and 
other foreigners, began their voyage somewhat later 
than has become the practice. In close seasons, the 
hardy navigator is obliged, with imminent peril and 
hazard, to impel his ship, by boring under a press 



44 CLIMATE. 

of sail, and assisted by ropes and saws, through the 
drift-ice which borders the great barrier, endeavouring 
to follow every vein of water that runs nearly in the 
required direction. If he fail in this attempt, he must 
forego the chance of a profitable voyage, and content 
himself with the humbler pursuit of catcliing seals. 

The space over which the line of ice may be sup- 
posed to oscillate in the Greenland seas, extends 1400 
miles from Cape Farewell to 200 miles beyond Jan 
Mayen's Island, which it includes, and has a mean 
breadth of about 80 miles. Such is the extent of 
the mere surplus ice formed and dissolved from year 
to year, — exceeding the whole surface of Great Bri- 
tain. Hence the quantity melted or liberated during 
the years 1816 and 1817 bore no very considerable 
proportion to the ordinary fluctuating mass. It is 
therefore evident, that whatever may be the casual 
variations of the frozen expanse, no mighty alteration 
has yet taken place in the climate and condition of 
the Arctic seas. 

If we compare the journals of former navigators, 
we shall be convinced that all the changes of the 
Polar ice are periodical, and are again repeated at 
no very distant intervals of time. We may pass over 
the pretensions of some Dutch captains, who alleged 
that they had been carried by winds or currents as 
far north as the latitude of 88°, or even that of 89° 40', 
and consequently only twenty miles from the Pole ; 
since their estimate, at all times rude, from observa- 
tions with the fore-staif, was then founded on mere 
dead reckoning after a continuation of foggy weather. 
Davis, in 1587, ascended, in the strait which de- 
servedly bears his name, to the latitude of 72° 12', 
where he found the variation of the compass to be 
82° west, or nearly the same as at present. In 1616, 
Baffin advanced, in the same quarter, as high as the 
latitude of 78 degrees. Hudson had, nine years 
before, penetrated in the Greenland seas to the lati- 
tude of 81°, and seen supposed land as high as that 



CLIMATE. 45 

of 82° lying" to the north-east of Spitzbergen. But 
it is mortifying to remark how little progress has 
been made in geographical discovery since those 
early and intrepid adventurers explored the Arctic 
regions with their humble barks, which seldom ex- 
ceeded the size of fifty tons. We must pass over 
a very long interval to obtain authentic information. 
In 1751, Captain M'Callam, whom Mr. Barrington 
calls a scientific seaman, sailed without obstruction 
from Hakluyt's Headland as high as the latitude of 
83 i°, where he found an open sea ; and the weather 
being fine, nothing hindered him from proceeding 
farther, but his responsibility to its owners for the 
safety of the ship. Captain Wilson, about the end 
of June, 1754, having traversed floating ice from the 
latitude of 74° to 8P, at last found the sea quite clear 
as far as he could descry ; and he advanced to the 
latitude of 83°, till, not meeting with any whales, and 
beginning to apprehend some danger, he shaped back 
his course. At this very time. Captain Guy, after four 
days of foggy weather, was likewise carried to the 
same point. The Polar seas at this period must 
indeed have been remarkably open ; for one of the 
most extraordinary and best-authenticated voyages 
was performed in 1754 by Mr. Stephens, a very skil- 
ful and accurate observer, M^hose testimony is put 
beyond all manner of doubt by the cool judgment of 
the late astronomer-royal. Dr. Maskelyne. This 
navigator informed him, that about the end of May, 
he was driven off Spitzbergen by a southerly wind, 
which blew for several days, till he had reached the 
latitude of 84^° ; and that in the whole of this run 
he met v/ith little ice and no drift-wood, and did not 
find the cold to be anywise excessive. In different 
subsequent years, the Greenland whalers have ad- 
vanced to the latitude of 81 or 82 degrees. This was 
accomplished even in 1766 ; although, according to 
Kerguelin, the whole space between Iceland and the 
opposite coast was then frozen over. The year 



46 CLIMATE. 

1773, or that in which Captain Phipps performed his 
voyage, was still more favourable for approaching 
towards the North Pole. In 1806, the elder Mr. 
Scoresby ascended to the latitude of 81° 50' ; but in 
the following year he could not proceed farther than 
the parallel of 78^°. In 1811, the liigher latitudes 
were again accessible ; and, after a short interval, 
the summers of 1815, 1816, and 1817 are represented 
as open seasons ; though none of the whalers have 
now penetrated so far into the north as had been done 
in many fonner years, and particularly in 1754. 

In this plain statement, one can perceive no de- 
cided symptoms of any general or progressive ten- 
dency towards a dissolution of the Polar ice. The 
frozen border alters its position from one year to 
another, and probably returns again to the same 
limits after certain short periods of time. Such fluc- 
tuations are analogous to the incessant changes which 
affect the state of the weather in the more temperate 
regions. The complex system of winds moulds the 
climate, and varies the features of the seasons over 
the globe. It is a common remark of those who fre- 
quent the Polar seas, that they find always the least 
obstruction from ice when the preceding winter has 
been very severe in the more southern latitudes. In 
the year 1766, though the frost had proved most in- 
tense through the rest of Europe, the whalers reached 
a high latitude ; and, not to multiply instances, the 
three seasons preceding 1818, reckoned very open, 
succeeded to winters notoriously cold and protracted. 
Nor is it difficult to discern the reason of this seeming 
paradox ; for our severe winters are occasioned by 
the prevalence of northerly winds, which must arrive 
at the Polar seas from the south, and consequently 
transport so much warmth to them as may check the 
usual rigour of the frost. 

The main argument, however, brought to prove the 
deterioration of the Arctic climate, is drawn from the 
Bupposed existence of a colony, which had once 



CLIMATE. 47 

flourished on the eastern coast of Greenland, but has, 
for several centuries, become extinct ; all access to 
its remains being at length completely barred by the 
accumulation of ice. This tale, which seems to 
have owed its birth to Torfaeus, the historian of Nor- 
way, has obtained very general credence. Yet, a 
sober examination of the early Sagas, or northern 
chronicles, so full of wonder and fable, will show 
that there is no solid reason for entertaining such a 
notion, or believing that the first settlement of Green- 
land was made on the east side of the continent 
The whole contexture of the original narrative indi- 
cates the very opposite conclusion. 

After the North had ceased to send forth her nu- 
merous swarms upon the fertile provinces of the 
Roman empire, the Scandinavian nations, prompted 
by their peculiar situation, betook themselves to a 
life of maritime adventure. Those bold and hardy 
pirates visited every sea, and pillaged, during a 
course of nearly three hundred years, all the coasts 
of Europe, from the extremity of Scotland to the 
shores of Sicily. During the first half of the ninth 
century, they conquered the Orkneys, the Shetland 
and Western Isles — obtained possession of Ireland 
— plundered England and France — and extended their 
ravages to Italy. In 876, the Northmen, or Nor- 
mands, extorted from the weakness of the French 
king the cession of the fine province of Neustria, 
where they quietly settled; while another party 
of these fierce invaders had occupied the fertile 
coast of Esthonia, on the south side of the Baltic. 

But the visits of those intrepid navigators were not 
confined to the richer countries of the south. They 
carried ravens with them, for the purpose of discover- 
ing distant land, by the direction of the flight of those 
powerful and sagacious birds. In 861, Nadodd, a 
roving pirate, in one of his voyages in the northern 
geas, happened to be cast away on an island which he 
called Snowland, Three years afterward, Gardar and 



48 CLIMATE. 

Flocke, two Swedes, visited it ; and having found a 
great quantity of drift-ice collected on the north side 
of it, they gave it the name of Iceland, which it still 
bears. But in 874, Ingolf and Leif, two famous Nor- 
wegian adventurers, carried a colony to this inhospi- 
table region, the latter having enriched it with the 
booty which he had ravaged from England. Other 
emigrants, whom the disorders of the times drove 
successively from home, resorted in crowds to the 
new settlement, which became very considerable in 
the space of a few years. , 

Iceland itself was able, after the progress of about a 
century, to send out likewise her colonies. Thor- 
wald, a proud and opulent Norwegian chief, who had 
been lately banished thither from the court for some 
murder committed by him, soon died in exile, leaving 
his wealth and his restless spirit to his son Eric 
Raude, or the Red* This youth, actuated by che same 
vengeful passions, killed one of his neighbours in a 
fight, and was obliged to withdraw himself from Ice- 
land for the space of three years. In 982, Eric 
sailed in quest of adventure and discovery. In- 
structed by the reports of former navigators, he 
directed his course towards the south-west ; and, 
after a quick run, he descried two lofty mountains, 
the one covered with snow and the other cased with 
ice, which he called Huitserken and Blaaserken, or 
the White Shirt and the Blue Shirt, and soon reached 
a headland which he doubled ; and having entered a 
spacious creek, he spent the winter on a pleasant 
adjacent island. In the following season, pursuing 
his discoveries, he explored the continent, and was 
delighted with the freshness and verdure of its coast. 
Contrasting this new coimtry with the dark rocks of 
Iceland, he bestowed on it the flattering appellation 
of Greenland ; and, on his return, invited settlers to 
join him, by circulating the most glowing and exag- 
gerated descriptions. With twenty-five vessels he 
sailed back again ; but of these only fourteen reached 



CLTMATE. 49 

their destination. This colony was soon augmented, 
by the arrival of other adventurers, not only from 
Iceland, but from the Orkneys and other islands 
planted by the Norvregians. In the year 999, Leif, 
a son of Eric Raude, having visited the court of 
Norway, was induced, by the zealous and earnest 
solicitation of King Olaf Tryggeson, to embrace the 
Christian faith ; and, carrying with him some monks, 
he found, through their ministry, no great difficulty 
in persuading his father and the rest of the settlers 
to forsake the rites of paganism. 

The first colony having extended itself along the 
coast to a wide firth, another settlement beyond that 
boundary was established farther towards the west. 
The former, called Oestre Bygd^ or the Eastern Settle- 
ment^ is said to have included, in its most flourishing 
state, twelve parishes and two convents; and the 
latter, termed Vestre Bygd, or the Western Settlement, 
contained four parishes. The colonists of Greenland 
were compelled to lead a life of hardship and severe 
privations. They dwelt in hovels surrounded by 
mountains of perpetual ice ; they never tasted bread, 
but subsisted on the fish which they caught, joined to 
a little milk obtained from their starving cows ; and, 
with seal-skins and the tusks of the walrus, they pur- 
chased, from the traders who occasionally visited 
them, the wood required for fuel and the construction 
of their huts. 

Combining the several circumstances together, it 
seems clear that the original colony of Greenland 
began about the southern promontory, near Cape 
Farewell, and stretched along the coast in a north- 
westerly direction. Farther north, and probably as 
high as the latitude of 60^, the second settlement was 
formed. For some centuries both of them main- 
tained a sort of commercial intercourse with Nor- 
way; but this trade became afterward very nmch 
reduced, in consequence of its being seized as an 
E 



60 CLIMATE. 

exclusive privilege of the Danish court. About the 
year 1376, the natives of the country, or Esquimaux 
invaders, whom the Norwegian settlers had in con- 
tempt called Skrcellings or Dwarfs, attacked the 
western colony, which now claimed the assistance 
of its elder brother. The scanty population, how- 
ever, was enfeebled by such repeated alarms; and 
that dreadful pestilence, termed the Black Death, 
which raged over Europe from the year 1402 to 1404, 
at last extended its ravages to Greenland, and nearly 
completed the destruction. In fertile regions the 
waste of the human species is always quickly re- 
paired; but poor and barren countries can seldom 
recover from the depression of such severe calami- 
ties. The colonies which occupied Greenland appear 
to have languished near one hundred years afterward, 
till they became finally extinct about the commence- 
ment of the sixteenth century. 

But a notion has very generally prevailed, that only 
^he western settlement of Greenland had perished, 
while the eastern was merely secluded from commu- 
nication with the rest of the world by a vast barrier 
of ice, at length accumulated on its shores. The 
only question lately entertained was, whether these 
ill-fated colonists have survived the catastrophe, or 
have been suddenly entombed in ice and snow, as 
the unhappy citizens of Herculaneum were anciently 
involved in a dense shower of volcanic ashes. Tre- 
mendous stories are told of the east side of Green- 
land being now tenanted by giants and stalking 
ghosts. For more than a century past the court of 
Denmark has, at different times, despatched ships to 
search after its lost colony, which, evidently under 
the impression of superstitious awe, found it impos- 
sible to penetrate on that enchanted coast farther 
than Cape Discord, in the latitude of 61^. But in 
favourable seasons small boats can, without much 
difficulty, creep along the shore to a much higher 



CLIMATE. 51 

parallel. If any settlers had ever occupied the nar- 
row bays, they might surely have escaped either in 
their canoes or in sledges. 

The supposed existence of a colony on the east 
side of Greenland is clearly a fable, originating in a 
misapprehension of the hnport of the designations 
applied severally to the two settlements. The one 
first made lay no doubt to the east, as well as to the 
south of the other; but the ships which resorted 
from Norway held a westeily course for them both. 
Between them a mutual intercourse appears likewise 
to have been maintained, which surely could not 
have taken place had they been divided by a chain 
of lofty and impassable mountains covered with 
eternal snow. Traces of those ancient settlements 
are besides observed even at present scattered along 
the western shores of Greenland, as low down as the 
latitude of 61°, though not corresponding altogethei 
with the poetical descriptions of the Icelandic Sa- 
gas. Except the very slight remains of a church, 
the only vestiges now remaining consist of low 
naked walls, which had served as pens for sheltering 
the cattle. 

It may be safely affirmed that the settlements 
which, during the last hundred years, the Danes 
have been forming at various points on the west side 
of Greenland, are more numerous and thriving than 
those which existed at any former period. They 
consist of twenty-one colonies, stretching over an 
extent of 800 miles. The first establishment is only 
a single family, occupying Bear Island, a little to 
the east of Cape Farewell. Ten other hamlets, 
composed chiefly of Moravians, are planted at differ- 
ent points, from the latitude of 60° to that of 68°. 
Three settlements are distributed round Disco Bay, 
about the latitude of 69° : and seven more have been 
extended thence as far as the latitude of 73°. So 
far, therefore, from the population having been ex- 
tirpated by the increased severity of the climate, the 



62 ANIMAL LIFE. 

truth appears to be, that the present establishments 
on the coast of Greenland extend ten degrees farther 
north than the ancient settlements at their most 
flourishing- period. This advance of the colonies 
has been owing, no doubt, to the increased activity 
of the whale fisheries, and to the circumstance of 
these having been lately carried with success into 
Davis's Strait. But there is nothing certainly in 
their history which betrays any radical or permanent 
change in the climate of the Arctic regions. The 
same continent of ice still remains during the far 
greater part of the year, to bar the access of the 
navigator to the Pole. 



CHAPTER II. 

Animal and Vegetable Life in the Polar Regiom. 

When we contemplate the aspect of the northern 
world, — ^bleak, naked, dreary, beaten by the raging 
tempest, and subject to an extremity of cold which, 
with us, is fatal to life and to all by which life is sup- 
ported, — we naturally imagine that animal nature 
must exist there on a small scale, and under diminu- 
tive forms. It might be expected, that only a few 
dwarf and stunted species would be scattered along 
its melancholy shores, and that life, as it attempted 
to penetrate these realms of desolation, would grow 
faint and expire. But the mighty Architect of 
nature, whose ways and power far surpass human 
comprehension, makes here a full display of his in- 
exhaustible resources. He has filled these naked 
rocks and wintry seas with a swarming profusion of 
life, such as he scarcely brings forth under the most 
genial glow of tropical suns. He has stored them 



ANIMAL LIFE. 53 

with the mig^htiest of living beings, compared to 
whose enormous bulk the elephant and hippopota- 
mus, which rear their immense shapes amid the 
marshy plains of the tropics, seem almost diminu- 
tive. Even the smaller species, as that of the her- 
ring, issue forth from the frozen depths of the Arctic 
zone in shoals which astonish by their immensity. 
Moving in close and countless columns, they fill all 
the southern seas, and minister food to nations. The 
air, too, is darkened by innumerable flocks of sea- 
fowl, while, even upon the frozen surface of the land, 
animals of peculiar structure, find food suited to their 
wants. 

By what m cans, or by what resources, does Nature 
support, amid the frozen world, this immensity of 
life 1 Wonderful as are her operations, they are 
"always arranged agreeably to the general laws im- 
posed upon the universe ; and we shall find, in the 
structure and condition of the animal world, the 
powers by which it is enabled to defy this frightful 
rigour of the elements. Some of the provisions by 
which animal frames are adapted to the varying ex- 
tremes of the climate have almost the appearance of 
direct interposition ; yet a more profound investiga- 
tion always discovers the causes of them to be deeply 
lodged in their physical organization. 

It is on the seas and shores of the Arctic zone that 
we chiefly observe this boundless profusion of life ; 
and in conformity with that arrangement by which 
Nature supports the inhabitants of the seas, by 
making them the food of each other, so here also 
we observe a continued gradation of animals, rising 
one above another, the higher preying upon the lower, 
till food is at last found for those of largest bulk and 
most devouring appetite. 

The basis of subsistence for the numerous tribes of 

the Arctic world is found in the genus medusa, which 

the sailors graphically describe as sea-blubber. The 

medusa is a soft, el?stic, gelatinous substance, spe- 

E2 



54 ANIMAL LIFE. 

cimens of which may be seen lying on our own shores, 
exhibiting no signs of life except that of shrinking 
when touched. Beyond the Arctic circle it increases 
in an extraordinary degree, and is eagerly devoured 
by the finny tribes of all shapes and sizes. By far 
the most numerous, however, of the medusan races 
are of dimensions too small to be discerned without 
the aid of the microscope, — the application of which 
instrument shows them to be the cause of a peculiar 
colour, which tinges a great extent of the Greenland 
Sea. This colour is olive-green, and the water is 
dark and opaque compared to that which bears the 
common cerulean hue. These olive waters occupy 
about a fourth of the Greenland Sea, or above twenty 
thousand square miles ; and hence the number of me- 
dusan animalcules which they contain is far beyond 
calculation. Mr. Scoresby estimates that two square 
miles contain 23,888,000,000,000,000; and as this 
number is beyond the range of human words and 
conceptions, he illustrates it by observing, that 80,000 
persons would have been employed since the creation 
in counting it. This green sea may be considered as 
the Polar pasture-ground, where whales are always 
seen in the greatest numbers. These prodigious ani- 
mals cannot derive any direct subsistence from such 
small invisible particles ; but these form the food of 
other minute creatures, which then support others, 
till at length animals are produced of such size as to 
afford a morsel for their mighty devourers. The ge- 
nus cancer, larger in size than the medusa, appears 
to rank second in number and importance. It pre- 
sents itself under the various species of the crab, 
and, above all, of the shrimp, whose multitudes rival 
those of the medusa, and which in all quarters feed 
and are fed upon. So carniverous are the propensi- 
ties of the northern shrimps, that joints hung out by 
Captain Parry's crew from the sides of the ship were 
in a few nights picked to the very bone ; and nothing 
could be placed within their reach except bodies of 



ANIMAL LIFE. 55 

which it was desired to obtain the skeleton. Many 
of the zoophytical and molluscous orders, particularly 
actinia sepia, and several species of marine worms, 
are also employed in devouring and in afifording ifood 
to various other animals. 

Among the numberless tribes of living things which 
people the northern seas, one class stands highly 
.conspicuous. These are the cetacea, comprehending 
the largest of existing animals, and having a struc- 
ture wholly distinct from every other species. Al- 
though their home be entirely in the depth of the 
waters, they have several features in common with 
the larger quadrupeds. They belong to the Linnaean 
class of mammalia, or suck-giving animals; they 
produce their young alive ; their skin is smooth and 
without scales ; their blood warm ; and the flesh 
tastes somewhat like coarse beef. They have a 
heart with two ventricles, and lungs through which 
they respire ; and being unable to separate the air 
from the water, as fishes do by means of their gills, 
they must come to the surface in order to breathe. 
It is thus by no means strictly scientific to call the 
whale a fish ; yet he is entirely an inhabitant of the 
sea, having a tail, though placed in a difierent posi- 
tion from that of ordinary fishes, while his front 
limbs much more resemble fins than legs, and are 
solely useful for pawing the deep. Hence the vul- 
gar, following a natural and descriptive classifica- 
tion, obstinately continue to give the name of fish to 
these watery monsters. But the most characteristic 
and important feature of the cetacea consists in a 
thick, deep layer of fatty substance, called blubber, 
lodged beneath the skin, and surrounding the body, 
which yields, on expression, nearly its own bulk of 
thick, coarse, viscid oil. It is by this covering that 
Providence enables them to defy the most dreadful 
extremities of cold, and to preserve a strong animal 
heat even under the eternal ice of the Pole. Yet 
this substance, being subservient to the uses of man, 



56 ANIMAL LIFE. 

has roused a dreadful and deadly enemy, who em- 
ploys against them the resources of art, — a power 
which the mightiest brutal force seeks in vain to op- 
pose. He pursues them through ice and tempest, 
and dyes all the northern seas with their blood. 
They themselves are meek, peaceful, sluggish ; and 
man, in the dreadful contests which he wages with 
them, is almost always the aggressor ; yet the resist- 
ance which he then encounters is sometimes terri- 
ble, and his life is not unfrequently the forfeit. 

Among the cetaceous tribes the chief place is due 
to the whale, of all animals " mightiest that swim 
the ocean stream." Enormous as his bulk is, ru- 
mour and the love of the marvellous have repre- 
sented it as being at one time much greater, and the 
existing race as only the degenerate remnant of 
mightier ancestors. Mr. Scoresby, however, by col- 
lecting various good authorities, has proved that 
sixty feet was always nearly the utmost length of 
the mysticetus, or great Greenland whale. Of 322 
individuals, in the capture of which that gentleman 
was concerned, none occurred of a length exceeding 
58 feet ; and he gives no credence to any rumour of 
a specimen which exceeded 70 feet. Even 60 feet 
implies a weight of 70 tons, being nearly that of 
three hundred fat oxen. Of this vast mass, the oil 
in a rich whale composes about thirty tons, and 
when, as was the case some years ago, that article 
brought £55 or £60 per ton, we may form some idea 
of the great value of the capture ; the bones of the 
head, fins, and tail weigh 8 or 10 ; the carcass, 30 or 
32 tons. The oleaginous substance, or blubber, the 
most valuable part of the animal, forms a complete 
wrapper round the whole body, of the thickness of 
from 8 to 20 inches. The head is disproportion ally 
large, fomiing about a third of the entire bulk. The 
basis consists of the crown-bone, from each side of 
which descend those immense jaw-bones which are 
sometimes presented to our wondering eyes, and 



^•'^ 



ANIMAL LIFE. 57 

which the whalers place on deck as trophies of their 
success, and in order that the fine oil contained in 
them may ooze from their lower extremities. These 
ja^^'-bones are from 16 to 20 feet in length, and ex- 
tend along the mouth in a curved line, till they meet 
and form a species of crescent. The lips, nearly 20 
feet long, display, when open, a cavity capable of 
receiving a ship's jolly-boat with her crew. The 
whale has no external ear ; but, when the skin is re- 
moved, a small aperture is discerned for the admis- 
sion of sound. This sense accordingly is very im- 
perfect : yet the animal, by a quick perception of all 
movements made on the water, discovers danger at 
a great distance. The eyes are proportionally small, 
though the sense of seeing is acute ; more so, however, 
through clear water than through an aerial medium. 
But the most unique feature in the structure of this 
animal consists in the spiracles or blow-holes, placed 
nearly on the crown of the head. These have been 
compared to naturalness d'eau throwing up water to 
the height of 40 or 50 feet ; but the more careful 
scrutiny of Mr. Scoresby ascertained, that they emit 
only a moist vapour, and are neither more nor less 
than huge nostrils. When, however, this vehement 
breathing or blowing is performed under the surface, 
a considerable quantity of water is thrown up into 
the air. The sound thus occasioned is the only thing 
like a voice emitted by the animal, and, in the case 
of a violent respiration, it resembles the discharge 
of a cannon. 

The tail is the most active limb of this mighty 
animal, and the chief instrument of his motion. 
It does not rise vertically like that of most fishes, 
being flat and horizontal, only four or fi^e feet 
long, but more than twenty feet broad. It con- 
sists of two beds of muscles connected with an 
extensive layer surrounding the body, and enclosed 
by a thin covering of blubber. Its power is tre- 
mendous. A single stroke throws a large boat with 



58 ANIMAL LIFE. 

all its crew into the air. Sometimes the whale 
places himself in a perpendicular position, with the 
head downwards, and, rearing his tail on high, beats 
the water with awful violence. On these occasions 
the sea foams, and vapours darken the air ; the lash- 
ing is heard several miles off, like the roar of a dis- 
tant tempest. Sometimes he makes an immense 
spring, and rears his whole body above the waves, 
to the admiration of the experienced whaler, but to 
the terror of those who see for the first time this asto- 
nishing spectacle. Other motions, equally expressive 
of his boundless strength, attract the attention of the 
navigator at the distance of miles. 

The fins, called by the French nageoires, and by 
Dr. Fleming " swimming paws," are placed imme- 
diately behind the eyes. They are nine feet long, 
enclosed by very elastic membranes, and provided 
with bones similar in form and number to those of 
the human hand. Such is the spring and vitality 
of the parts, that, if we may believe De Reste, they 
continue to move for some time after being separated 
from the body. According to Mr. Scoresby, however, 
while the whale swims, these organs lie flat on the 
surface of the water, and are not at all instrumental in 
producing his motion, which arises entirely from the 
tail. The fins merely direct and steady the move- 
ment, and thus serve rather as a helm than as oars. 

The period of gestation in the whale is nine or ten 
months, and the female brings forth in February or 
March. She is viviparous ; that is, the young come 
forth alive, not enclosed in an egg ; and there is usu- 
ally only one at a time. These delicate nurslings, 
only about fourteen feet long, and weighing little more 
than a ton, are watched over by the mother with the 
most tender care. The whalers strike these suckers, 
as they are called, not on account of their own valuer 
but under the assurance that the mother will stait 
forth in their defence. Then ensues a contest hard and 
perilous, but commonly attended with a prosperous 



ANIMAL LIFE. 59 

issue, for she never seeks safety in flight. She rushes 
upon the boat, drags the line with extraordinary force, 
tosses to and fro with extreme agony, and suffers her- 
self to be struck by repeated harpoons without at- 
tempting to escape ; while the good-natured captain 
has his triumphant feelings damped by the considera- 
tion, that his prize has fallen the victim to such an 
ardour of maternal tenderness. According to indica- 
tions afforded by notches in the whalebone, which 
seem not, however, very fully established, the whale 
does not attain his full growth under twenty-five 
years, and is said to reach a very great age. 

There is a considerable variety of whales. The 
balcena physalis {balcenoptera gibbar of La Cepede), 
called by the sailors razorback^ is considerably longer 
than the mysticetus ; and though his circumference 
be smaller, he is on the whole a still larger and more 
powerful animal. He is also swifter, swimming at 
the rate of twelve miles an hour; and Mr. Scoresby 
has seen him, when struck with a harpoon, run off 
480 fathoms of line in a minute. An individual of 
this species, found dead in Davis's Straits, measured 
105 feet in length; he is, however, a dangerous 
species to attack, as, by the extreme rapidity of his 
motion, he often breaks the line, or obliges the sailors 
to cut it in order to escape destruction. Martens 
mentions a whale of this kind, which dragged a boat 
with its crew among loose ice, where they all 
perished. As this fish contains only ten or twelve 
tons of oil, of an inferior quality, the whalers gene- 
rally shun his encounter, unless when they are dis- 
posed for a daring adventure, or mistake him, as they 
frequently do, for a mysticetus. Besides the two 
pectoral fins, he has a horny protuberance or fin at 
the extremity of the back, which part of the body, 
instead of being round as in the mysticetus, rises 
into a narrow ridge. The balcena mus cuius or 
broad-nosed whale, the balcena rostrata or beaked 
whale, and the balcena boops or finner, may be con- 



60 ANIMAL LIFE. 

sidered as razorbacks on a smaller scale, with certain* 
specific distinctions. It is usually these smaller 
whales that frequent the coasts of Norway and 
Shetland, and sometimes make their appearance in 
the British firths ; but neither they nor the physalis 
ever attract the attention of an experienced fisher. 

The only species besides the mysticetus, which i» 
the object of regular whaling operations, is the cacha* 
vot {physeter microps) or spermaceti whale. This 
variety occurs occasionally in the northern seas^ 
especially on the American coast, but abounds chiefly 
m the waters bordering on the Antarctic zone, and 
is the main object of pursuit in the southern fishery. 
The cachalot does not seem to have met Mr. 
Scoresby's observation, although a male was thrown 
ashore at Limekilns on the Forth, as described by 
Sir Robert Sibbald; but, according to the descrip- 
tion of De Reste and others, this species is distin- 
guished by a long row of teeth on the lower and 
none on the upper jaw ; the back has a peculiar form, 
with a small bunch behind : the tail is of extraordi- 
nary breadth. The cachalot appears in large herds,, 
while the mysticetus, called by our fishers the right 
whale, is found usually single. These bands very 
often amount to two hundred, which are said to be 
mostly female, under the guidance usually of a male 
of very large dimensions. To attack them is a for- 
midable undertaking; but success is very advan- 
tageous, since ten or twelve sometimes fall in one 
encounter. The perils and adventures of this fishery 
are described as almost exceeding belief ; for which 
reason it is to be regretted that Captain Day's 
modesty makes him decline recounting any of those 
which he witnessed. The quantity of oil is much 
smaller than in the mysticetus, not usually exceed- 
ing three tons ; but, from its being mixed with the 
substance called spermaceti, is far superior in value.. 
The latter kind of oil, while warm, is fluid ; but on 
being poured into hot water it congeals into large 



ANIMAL LIFE. 61 

flakes. This whale yields also the peculiar aromatic 
substance called ambergris, formed under peculiar 
circumstances in the rectum, and voided as feces. 

Another species, called the narwal, about sixteen 
feet long and eight in circumference, appears to differ 
little from a small whale, except in a tusk projecting 
from his upper jaw, three to ten feet in length, which, 
suggesting to the sailors the idea of a horn, has pro- 
cured for him the appellation of the sea-unicorn. He 
is swift, yet is taken without much difficulty, and 
yields two or three tons of very fine oil. The dol- 
phin, another cetaceous animal of poetic fame, occa- 
sionally occurs ; and the grampus appears often in 
numerous herds, guided by some of larger size. The 
beluga, or white whale, is also a small species, dis- 
tinguished chiefly by its colour. 

All the shores and borders of the Arctic zone are 
crowded with huge amphibious races, which appear 
to form an intermediate link between whales and 
quadrupeds, — the mammalia of the sea and those of 
the land. Among these is to be distinguished the 
morse or walrus {trichecus rosmarus), which bears 
such a resemblance to our domestic quadrupeds, 
that sailors, according to their various impres- 
sions, have given it the title of sea-horse or sea- 
cow. It is a large, shapeless, unwieldy creature, 12 
to 15 feet in length, and from 8 to 10 in circum- 
ference ; the head small, the limbs short, of an inter- 
mediate character between fins and legs. As a de- 
fence against the extreme cold, these animals not 
only have skins an inch thick, covered with close 
hair, but enjoy like the other cetacea a coating of oily 
fat, with which their bodies are completely enveloped. 
Thus cased, they lie stretched on the ice in the depth 
of winter, without suffering any inconvenience. The 
most remarkable feature of the walrus, however, con- 
sists in two teeth or tusks, which project in a curved 
line from the upper jaw, and are nearly two feet in 
length. They are of beautiful white bone, almost 
F 



63 ANIMAL LIFE. 

equal to ivory, and much used in the fabrication of 
artificial teeth. The front face, when seen at a 
little distance, bears a striking resemblance to the 
human; and its appearance is suspected to have 
sometimes given rise to the fanciful reports of mer- 
maids seen in the northern seas. Like all the ceta- 
ceous tribes, to which the walrus is allied, he is dis- 
posed to be peaceful and harmless. Captain Parry- 
describes the supine security with which a number 
of them lay on the ice, piled over each other, without 
discomposing themselves at the approach of a party 
armed for their destruction. But they were doubt- 
less not aware of the deadly weapons with which 
man is armed, while his physical aspect displays 
nothing with which they might not deem themselves 
fully qualified to cope. In Spitzbergen, where they 
have been long the object of chase to the Russian 
hunters, they are reported to keep very strict watch ; 
it being said that one stands guard while the others 
sleep. Even when sensible of danger, they are not 
forward to face it, but rather shun the attack by 
rushing beneath the ice, when those behind, with 
their tusks, urge forward their companions. Yet 
when at length compelled to combat, they give battle 
with the utmost coolness and courage ; they then 
stand firm by each other, rush in one united body 
against the boats, and, striking with their tusks, en- 
deavour to overset them. When repulsed too, they 
repeatedly rally, and yield finally only to the fire- 
arms of Europeans, or to the stratagems of the Es- 
quimaux. Maternal tenderness, and the determina- 
tion with which the female defends her young, are 
equally conspicuous in them as in members of the 
whale species. 

The seal, an animal well known on all the shores 
of Europe, need not be particularly described. The 
Arctic species are distinguished by their very great 
numbers, and by the various, or rather universal 
purposes to which they are applied by the Esqui- 



ANIMAL LIFE. 63 

maux. They furnish food for his table, oil for his 
lamp, clothing for his person ; even their bones and 
skin supply materials for his light portable boats and 
his summer tents. 

Before quitting the polar seas we must notice an- 
other inhabitant, whose migrations render it familiar 
to all the coasts of Europe. These waters, as 
already observed, apparently so chill and ungenial, 
contain not only an ample store of animal life, but a 
vast superabundance, with which they supply all the 
seas of the temperate climates. From them in par- 
ticular, if we may believe the Dutch writers, are de- 
rived the extensive and valuable tribes of the herring. 
Their immense bands break up from their frozen 
depths about January, and in March appear on the 
coast of Iceland. Their column at this time, con- 
fined between Greenland and the North Cape, is of 
comparatively small breadth, but so dense that the 
water is darkened by them ; any wooden vessel let 
down brings up several : they may even be taken by 
the stroke of a lance. They follow certain of their 
number larger than the rest, called kings. These 
kings are held in much respect by the Dutch, who 
studiously spare their majesties, and even liberate 
them when found in the net, lest, deprived of this 
royal guidance, the nation should not find the way to 
their accustomed haunts. After emerging from the 
Greenland sea, this great army divides into two 
wings, of which the right and largest bears down di- 
rectly upon Scotland ; at the north-eastern extremity 
of which it forms that immense field, in which the 
Dutch for so many years carried on their great na- 
tional fishery. They are now rivalled by the boat- 
men of Wick and Thurso. A detachment smaller in 
number, but some of which attain to superior excel- 
lence, fills the western bays of Scotland, and passing 
along Ireland, reaches the neighbouring coast of 
France. Meantime the left or smaller wing, after 
ranging the Norwegian shore, has entered the Baltic, 



64 ANIMAL LIFE. 

In July all these advancing divisions halt, and by an 
unknown impulse begin to retrace their course to- 
wards their northern home. De Reste considers it 
certain, that the herrings, in returning, have a gene- 
ral point of rendezvous not yet discovered ; but it 
should seem that only the actual discovery of this 
rendezvous can ascertain its existence. However, 
about the end of September, they reach their resi- 
dences beneath the ices of the Pole, where they re- 
main three months ; all the rest of the year being 
spent in wandermg over the face of the ocean. 

Although the object of Providence in leading the 
herring this immense annual round is doubtless that 
of furnishing food to numerous animals, and espe- 
cially to man, yet the immediate impulse by which 
they are urged to so extensive and regular a move- 
ment has been the subject of much controversy. 
Anderson supposes that they fly before the numerous 
large fishes which fill the Arctic seas, and by which 
they are pursued and devoured, and that they form 
themselves into close bands with a view to self-de- 
fence. But the regular course which they follow, 
year after year, and their constant return at a fixed 
period, suggests nothing of that tumultuous flight 
which such a panic would have prompted. It seems 
more probable, that they are led by those instincts 
which guide fishes to deposite their spawn in places 
remote and dissimilar to their usual abode. The fe- 
male herring, when taken on the coast of Britain, is 
found commonly to contain a roe, and as this roe 
comprises the embryo of ten thousand future her- 
rings, such a prodigious fecundity easily repairs all 
the havoc committed upon the species, not only by 
its brethren of the deep, but also by the ingenuity of 
man constantly exerted for its capture and destruc- 
tion. 

The other animals which frequent the Polar re- 
gions belong chiefly or wholly to the land. 

In the caves of the rocks, or in the hollows of the 



ANIMAL LIFE. 65 

ice, dwells the most formidable of Arctic quadru- 
peds, the Greenland or Polar bear. This fierce ty- 
rant of the cliffs and snows of the north unites the 
strength of the lion with the untameable fierceness 
of the hyena. A long shaggy covering of white soft 
hair and a copious supply of fat enable him to defy 
the winter of this rigorous climate. Under the heat 
of Britain he suffers the most painful sensations; 
Pennant saw one, over whom it was necessary from 
time to time to pour large pailfuls of water. An- 
other, kept for some years by professor Jameson, 
evidently suffered severely from the heat of an Edin- 
burgh summer. The haunt of the bear is on the 
dreary Arctic shores, or on mountains of ice, some- 
times two hundred miles from land ; yet he is no^ 
strictly speaking, amphibious. He cannot remain 
under water above a few moments, and he reaches 
his maritime stations only by swimming from one 
icy fragment to another. Mr. Scoresby limits the 
swimming reach to three or four miles ; yet Parry 
found one in the centre of Barrow's Strait, where i 
was forty miles across. This bear prowls continu- 
ally for his prey, which consists chiefly of the smallel 
cetacea and of seals, which, unable to contend with 
him, shun their fate by keeping strict watch, and 
plunging into the depths of the waters. With the 
walrus he holds dreadful and doubtful encounters ; 
and that powerful animal, with his enormous tusks, 
frequently beats him off with great damage. The 
whale he dares not attack, but watches anxiously 
for the huge carcass in a dead state, which affords 
him a prolonged and delicious feast : he scents it at 
the distance of miles. All these sources of supply 
being precarious, he is sometimes left for weeks 
without food, and the fury of his hunger then be- 
comes tremendous. At such periods, man, viewed 
by him always as his prey, is attacked with peculiar 
fierceness. 
The annals of the north are filled with accounts 
F2 



66 ANIMAL LIFE, 

of the most perilous and fatal conflicts of the Polar 
bear. The first, and one of the most tragical, was 
sustained by Barentz and Heemskerke, in 1596, dur- 
ing their voyage for the discovery of the north-east 
passage. Having anchored at an island near the 
stiait of Waygatz, two of the sailors landed, and 
were walking on shore, when one of them felt him- 
self closely hugged from behind. Thinking this a 
frolic of one of his companions, he called out in a 
corresponding tone, " Who's there 1 pray stand off." 
His comrade looked, and screamed out, " A bear ! a 
bear !" then running to the ship, alarmed the crew 
with loud cries. The sailors ran to the spot armed 
with pikes and muskets. On their approach the bear 
very coolly quitted the mangled corpse, sprang upon 
another sailor, carried him off, and, plunging his teeth 
into his body, began drinking his blood at long 
draughts. Hereupon the whole of that stout crew, 
struck with terror, turned their backs, and fled pre- 
cipitately to the ship. On arriving there they began 
to look at each other, unable to feel much satisfac- 
tion with their own prowess. Three then stood 
forth, undertaking to avenge the fate of their country- 
men, and to secure for them the rites of burial. 
They advanced, and fired at first from so respectful 
a distance that they all missed. The purser then 
courageously proceeded in front of his companions, 
and, taking a close aim, pierced the monster's skull 
immediately below the eye. The bear, however, 
merely lifted his head, and advanced upon them, 
holding still in his mouth the victim whom he was 
devouring; but seeing him soon stagger, the three 
rushed on with sabre and bayonet, and soon de- 
spatched him. They collected and bestowed decent 
sepulture on the mangled limbs of their comrades, 
while the skin of the animal, thirteen feet long, be- 
came the prize of the sailor who had fired the suc- 
cessful shot. 
The history of the whale-fishers records a number 



ANIMAL LIFE. 67 

of remarkable escapes from the bear. A Butch cap- 
tain, Jonge Kees, in 1668, undertook, with two ca- 
noes to attack one, and with a lance gave him so 
dreadful a wound in the belly, that his immediate 
death seemed inevitable. Anxious, therefore, not to 
injure the skin, Kees merely followed the animal 
close, till he should drop down dead. The bear, 
however, having climbed a little rock, made a spring 
from the distance of twenty-four feet upon the cap- 
tain, who, taken completely by surprise, lost hold of 
the lance, and fell beneath the assailant, who, plac- 
ing both paws on his breast, opened two rows of 
tremendous teeth, and paused for a moment, as if 
to show him all the horrors of his situation. At 
this critical instant, a sailor, rushing forward with 
only a scoop, succeeded in alarming the monster, 
who made off, leaving the captain without the 
slightest injury. 

In 1788, Captain Cook of the Archangel, when 
near the coast of Spitzbergen, found himself sud- 
denly between the paws of a bear. He instantly 
called on the surgeon, who accompanied him, to fire, 
which the latter did with such admirable promptitude 
and precision, that he shot the beast through the 
head, and delivered the captain. Mr. Hawkins of 
the Everthorpe, in July, 1818, having pursued and 
twice struck a large bear, had raised his lance for a 
third blow, when the animal sprang forward, seized 
him by the thigh, and threw him over its head into 
the water. Fortunately, it used this advantage only 
to effect its own escape. Captain Scoresby men- 
tions a boat's crew which attacked a bear in the Spitz- 
bergen sea; but the animal having succeeded in 
climbing the sides of the boat, all the sailors threw 
themselves for safety into the water, where they 
hung by the gunwale. The victor entered trium- 
phantly, and took possession of the barge, where it 
sat quietly till it was shot by another party. The 
same writer mentions the ingenious contrivance of a 



d8 animal life. 

sailor, who, being pursued by one of these creatures, 
threw down successively his hat, jacket, handkerchief, 
and every other article in his possession, when the 
brute pausing at each, gave the sailor always a cer- 
tain advantage, and enabled him finally to regain the 
vessel. 

Though the voracity of the bear is such, that he 
has been known to feed on his own species, yet ma- 
ternal tenderness is as conspicuous in the female as 
in other inhabitants of the frozen regions. There is 
no exertion which she will not make for the supply 
of her progeny. A she-bear, with her two cubs, 
being pursued by some sailors across a field of ice, 
and finding that, neither by example, nor by a peculiar 
voice and action, she could urge them to the requisite 
speed, applied her paws and pitched them alternately 
forward. The little creatures themselves, as she 
came up, threw themselves before her to receive the 
impulse, and thus both she and they effected theil 
escape. 

Bears are by no means devoid of intelligence. 
Their schemes for entrapping seals, and other ani- 
mals on which they feed, often display considerable 
ingenuity. The manner in which the Polar bear sur- 
prises his victim, is thus described by Captain Lyon : 
— On seeing his intended prey, he gets quietly into 
the water, and swims to a leeward position, from 
whence, by frequent short dives, he silently makes 
his approaches, and so arranges his distance, that at 
the last dive he comes to the spot where the seal is 
lying. If the poor animal attempts to escape by 
rolling into the water, he falls into the paws of the 
bear ; if, on the contrary, he lies still, his destroyer 
makes a powerful spring, kills him on the ice, and de- 
vours him at leisure. Some sailors, endeavouring to 
catch a bear, placed the noose of a rope under the 
snow, baited with a piece of whale's flesh. The 
bear, however, contrived, three successive times, to 
push the noose aside, and to carry off the bait un- 



ANIMAL LIFE. 69 

hurt. Captain Scoresby had half-tamed two cubs» 
which used even to walk the deck ; but they showed 
themselves always restless under this confinement, 
and finally effected their escape. 

According- to Pennant and other writers, the bear 
forms chambers in the great ice-mountains, where he 
sleeps the long winter night, undisturbed by the roar 
of the northern tempest ; but this regular hibernation 
is doubted by many recent observers. The fact seems 
to be, that the males roam about all winter in search 
of prey, not being under the same necessity of sub- 
mitting to the torpid state as the black bear of Ame- 
rica, which feeds chiefly on vegetable food ; but the 
females, who are usually pregnant during the more 
rigorous season of the year, seclude themselves for 
nearly the entire winter in their dens. 

The animals which belong entirely to the land, and 
feed on herbage, are, in a climate covered deep with 
snow for nine months in the year, necessarily few 
both in number and species. The reindeer, a most 
patient and useful creature, the standing inhabitant 
of all the northern lands, reaches nearly as far as 
animal life can subsist. To the Laplander he is all 
in all ; and in that climate he can always dig from 
under the snow the moss or lichen, his favourite 
food. Even in the severer Arctic climates he carries 
his summer excursions as far as men have yet pene- 
trated ; but at the end of October the deeply- frozen 
earth allows him no longer to reach even the simple 
food in which he delights. They then assemble in 
large herds, and migrate to the southward. From 
Melville Island they were even seen crossing the 
frozen surface of the sea, to reach a milder climate 
on the American shore. The people within the 
Arctic zone do not tame the reindeer, or yoke 
it in the sledge; it is not even for them the staff 
of life ; but it affords a favourite object of sum- 
mer chase, gives an agreeable variety to their 
meals, and yields their warmest and most valuable 



70 ANIMAL LIFE. 

winter robes. The fur-skin becomes always richer 
and more copious in proportion to the intensit)^ of 
the cold, against which it forms the only, but a suf- 
ficient defence. In the chase the deer fall easy vic- 
tims, even to the rude archery of the Esquimaux, 
being so simple and curious, that, if a man merely 
walks away from them, they follow. Some of these 
animals who joined Captain Parry's crews on Mel- 
ville Island played round them like lapdogs, and at 
setting out in the morning used to gambol by rearing 
on their hind-legs. The musk-ox, the only member 
of the bovine species which penetrates the Arctic 
zone, though in smaller numbers, affords a wholesome 
and agreeable variety of food. Its unwieldy form is 
protected from the cold by an immense profusion of 
hair, which envelopes its whole limbs and figure, and 
also by an interior layer of wool, which appeared to 
Pennant the finest he had ever seen, and made, he 
was told, stockings superior to the richest silk. This 
last, we suspect, is a temporary winter clothing. 

The canine race affords several species which 
brave the most extreme severity of the Arctic cold, 
and remain after every other land-quadruped, except 
the bear, has taken its flight to the southward. 
Wolves, in considerable packs, continue still to seek 
their prey in the utmost depths of the Polar winter. 
It seems difficult to discover what food they find at 
that season ; but a regular pack attended the English 
discovery-ships, watching for whatever offal might 
be found exposed, and serenading them with nightly 
bowlings. As if by a sort of tacit convention, they 
did not presume to attack the sailors, but they ad- 
vanced in a most daring manner to the sides of the 
ships, and sometimes even entered the huts of the 
Esquimaux, whose dogs they esteemed the choicest 
prize, and very speedily devoured them. The natives 
catch them by traps formed of little sheds of ice, at 
whose entrance is a portcullis of the same material, 
connected in such a manner with the bait within. 



ANIMAL LIFE 71 

ihat, when the latter is seized by the animal, the port- 
cuUis drops, and the wolf is taken. Their tenacity 
of life is such as often, after apparent death, to cause 
surprises and even dangers. The Arctic fox, a 
small beautiful white animal, with woolly hair like a 
little shock-dog, occurs in still greater numbers. 
About a hundred were caught in Capt. Parry's second 
voyage, some of which were half-tamed and made pets 
of; while others, by a harder fate, were dressed for 
table ; and their flesh, somewhat resembling kid, af 
forded an agreeable relief from the constant use of 
salted meat. 

The dog, however, is the most important quadruped 
of the Arctic world, and the most valuable possession 
of its people, who have succeeded in taming and 
rendering it equally valuable for draught and hunting. 
The dogs of the Greenlander, the Esquimaux, and 
the Kamtchadale, are large, and of a somewhat wild 
aspect. Captain Lyon describes them as resembling 
h form the shepherd's dog, rising to the height of the 
Newfoundland, but broad like the mastiif, having 
short pricked ears, a furry coat, and a bushy tail. In 
general, they are observed to bear a strong resem- 
Dlance to the wolf, and the opinion is even prevalent 
that they are neither more nor less than tamed wolves. 
Parry and Richardson both mention instances in 
which domestic dogs were seduced away by the at- 
tractions of female wolves ; yet the avidity with 
which the wolf devours these, his supposed tame 
brethren, does not seem very indicative of so close 
an affinity. Nature, with provident care, defends 
them against the cold, not only by a profusion of 
long hair, but by a soft downy covering, formed be- 
neath it at the commencement of winter, and shed at 
the approach of the milder season. The Esquimaux 
are much reproached for their harsh treatment of 
these valuable servants ; yet in infancy they are used 
with tenderness, the women often taking the young 
puppies into bed, and feeding them from their own 



72 ANIMAL LIFE. 

mouths. As soon as they can walk they are yoked 
to a small sledge ; in endeavouring to shake off which 
encumbrance they learn to draw it. Severe and fre- 
quent beatings, however, are necessary to train them 
for acting as a regular team. But their most severe 
privation is in food ; of which, during the season of 
scarcity, they obtain a portion barely sufficient to 
maintain life, and not at all to prevent them from 
falling into a state the most meager and debilitated. 
Their hunger is manifested by the nature of the sub- 
stances with which they sometimes seek to assuage 
it. Captain Parry saw one which ate a large piece 
of canvass, a cotton handkerchief laid out to dry, 
and apiece of a linen shirt. The Esquimaux, we must 
recollect, are subject to severe scarcities, and the 
food of the dogs being the same with their own, the 
animals, on such emergencies, can scarcely expect 
to be placed on a footing of equality. This rough 
usage does not seem incompatible with a measure of 
solid attachment to these valuable servants. The 
natives refused to sell them to the English, till assured 
that they would not be killed. They rejoiced greatly 
lo see a house built for them ; and at every visit a 
friendly recognition took place between the dog and 
his old master. When the animals are yoked in the 
sledge, a whip of twenty feet long enforces obedi- 
ence, while peculiar cries indicate the right or left, to 
^urn or to stop. Three dogs could draw a sledge 
weighing lOOlbs., at the rate of a mile in six minutes, 
and one leader has drawn 1961bs. the same distance 
in eight minutes. A full team, however, comprises 
eight OT ten dogs j though seven have drawn a full 
sledge at the rate of a mile in four minutes and a 
half; while nine, employed in conveying stores from 
the Hecia to the Fury, drew 1611Ibs. in nine mi- 
nutes. Capt. Lyon reports most favourably of the 
team which he himself formed, who used to draw 
Mm from ship to ship, a mile distant, in the deepest 
darkness and amid clouds of snow-drift^ with the 



ANIMAL LIFE. 73 

rhost perfect precision, when he could not have found 
his own way for a hundred steps. Their services in 
hunting are also of great value : they can snuff the 
seal in his hole, or the deer on the mountains, from a 
surprising distance. Assembled in packs^ they face 
even the Polar bear, keeping him at least at bay till 
their masters come up with spears to the attack. 

The air in those dreary regions is, almost as much 
as the waters, peopled with its appropriate inhabit- 
ants, who fill it continually with sound and life. 
Here, too, the species are nearly all different from 
those which wing their flight through the temperate 
skies. They do not shine with the bright hues of the 
humming-bird, nor breathe the soft notes of the 
nightingale, nor do they charm the air with the rich 
melody of our woodland choirs; but the auk, the 
petrel, and the gull, clustering in myriads, cause all 
the rocks and shores of the north to echo with their 
wild clang. They are almost all rapacious and car- 
nivorous ; the vast collections of shell-fish and ma- 
rine insects with which those seas abound, and the 
carcasses of the huge animals which are killed either 
in conflicts with each other or with man, affording 
them an inexhaustible supply of nutriment. 

The fulmar, or petrel {procellaria glacialis), is the 
close attendant of the whale ships in every stage of 
their progress. Termed emphatically the bird of 
Storm, it faces the northern tempest when raving 
with its utmost fury, and seats itself on the agitated 
crest of the mountain-wave, as calmly as if resting 
on the surface of an untroubled lake ! It follows 
with one uniform object, — that of snatching and 
feasting on portions of blubber. As soon as a whale 
is fastened to the side of the ship, and begins to be 
cut up, an immense muster takes place, sometimes 
exceeding a thousand, all stationed in the rear, watch- 
ing for the fragments which are wafted to leeward. 
The peculiar chuckling noise by which they express 
their eager expectation, the voracity with which they 
G 



74 ANIMAL LIFE. 

seize on the fat, and the huge morsels which they 
swallow, — the envy shown to those who have ob-* 
tained the largest of these delicate inorsels, and 
often the violent measures taken to wrest it from 
them, — afford to the sailors curious and amusing 
spectacles. The surface of the sea is sometimes so 
covered with them, that a stone cannot be thrown 
without one being struck. When an alarm is given, 
innumerable wings are instantly in movement, and 
the birds, striking their feet against the water to aid 
their flight, cause a loud and thundering plash. 

The petrel, however, does not enjoy alone this 
delicious ocean-festival. It is sought with equal 
avidity by the various species of the larm or gull— 
the Arctic gull, the kittiwake, and the snow-bird 
{larus €burneus)i which last excites admiration by its 
pure and beautiful white; but the elegance of its 
taste does not correspond to that of its appearance, 
fat blubber being its choicest luxury, while it utters a 
loud and disagreeable scream. But all these raven- 
ing tribes of the northern sky have a terrible rival 
in the glaucous gull {larus glaucus), who equals in 
rapacity and surpasses them all in power and 
strength. In consideration of this, the Dutch have 
invested him with the title of burgomaster; but that 
sage magistrate uses, we trust, his power in a very 
different manner from his winged representative, 
who employs it solely in wresting from the weaker 
species whatever he sees them possess, and esteems 
desirable. He is usually hovering high in the air, 
or seated on the loftiest icy pinnacles, whence, having 
lixed his eye on a delicious morsel, he darts down 
on the possessor, which, whether fulmar, snow-bird, 
or kittiwake^must instantly resign the coveted prize. 
Happily for these races, the burgomaster species is 
Very small in number, compared to the multitudes 
over whom he tyrannizes. 

The genus anas, comprehending the swan, the 
goose, and the duck, large, useful, and often beautiful 



ANIMAL LIFE. 75 

birds, traverse in vast flights all the northern seas 
and waters. Like the rest of the anseres, tliey have 
all webbed feet, consisting of branching toes con- 
nected by a membrane, which enable them to move 
with equal facility in the water as on land. The 
swan, with its stately plumage, frequents chiefly the 
inland seas and lakes, of which it has been called 
the peaceful monarch. The goose, a less elegant 
but more useful species, migrates in vast numbers 
every spring to breed on the Arctic shores and islands, 
and affords a valuable supply of food to all the 
northern settlements. The Hudson's Bay Company 
salt three or four thousand annually for winter. The 
Indians celebrate the month of their arrival under 
the title of the goose-moon. Migration during the 
rigorous season, resorted to even by quadrupeds, be- 
comes the still more natural resource of the feathered 
creation. Even in September the flocks of geese, 
winging their way to the southward, supplied a 
warning to Captain Franklin of the winter that was 
closing in upon him. 

The duck reaches a still higher latitude than the 
goose, and endures still severer cold. Great flocks 
of that species called the eider arrive in spring on the 
most northern shores of Greenland. All the birds 
that fly over the frozen seas are provided by Nature 
Math a rich and ample plumage, and a lining of soft 
down beneath; and the people of these countries 
find the skins of birds, with the feathers inside, to 
be one of their most comfortable articles of clothing. 
But the down of all the known species of birds is 
surpassed in fineness by that of the eider, the deli- 
cious softness of which fits it for the couch of kings. 
A pound of eider-down, according to Sir Charles 
Giesecke, is usually sold for a pound sterling. 
The finest is that which the birds pluck from their 
breast to line the interior of the nest. The Green- 
lander, watching his time, removes this precious 
iiiiinff as soon as it is completed, whereupon the 



76 VEGETABLE LIFE. 

poor animals form a second, destined to share the 
same fate. 

Amon^ other Arctic birds are the terns, which on 
the American coast are so very numerous, that an 
island has been named from the immense flocks with 
which it is annually filled. They produce the most 
delicate eggs of any water-bird. We may add the 
colymbus (guillemot), whose skin affords a peculiarly 
comfortable clothing, — the tringa (sandpiper), — the 
charadrius (plover), — the tetrao (grouse, and ptarmi- 
gan), of which a species, much valued on account of 
the delicacy of its flesh, occupies the interior of 
Greenland. All ptarmigans change their colour 
from mottled gray or brown in summer, to pure 
white during the winter months. According to Be 
Reste, the dark summer covering is shed at the end 
of autumn, and a new plumage shoots out, which is 
white, till darkened by the warmth of the following 
spring — or, to speak more accurately, a partial moult 
takes place in autumn, during which all the coloured 
feathers are thrown out, and their places supplied by 
white ones, while in spring most of these white 
plumes are again cast, to make room for others, 
adorned by the richer and more varied hues of sum- 
mer. Captain Parry saw this last change go on so 
rapidly among the grouse on Melville Island, as to 
be perceptible from day to day. 

The vegetable world does not, in this dark and 
outer boundary of the earth, possess such an import- 
ant and commanding character as the animal. Na- 
ture, without departing wholly from her system and 
laws, could not clothe with verdure and vegetation a 
soil which for nine months of the year is frozen as 
hard as rock, and covered with snow many feet 
deep. The plants of more genial climates, indeed, 
when inserted during the short and bright summer, 
spring up and wear for some time a promising apr 
pearance ; but they are all nipped by the untimely win- 
ter. Still, Nature, in the northern regions, especially 



VEGETABLE LIFE. 77 

111 those approaching the Arctic zone, does employ 
resources similar to those by which she cherishes 
animal life. The fir, the pine, and other trees of 
these climates, on being pierced, distil, not the balmy 
and fragrant gums of Arabia and India, but rich, 
thick, coarse juices, by which their interior heat has 
been preserved, and which, in the shape of pitch, tar, 
and turpentine, serve many valuable purposes of 
commerce. Through the cherishing influences of 
these juices, the lakes of North America are bordered 
with tall dark forests, which afford to the agricultu- 
ral countries an inexhaustible supply of valuable 
timber. Even their gloomy foliage, while the forests 
of the south are every autumn strewing the ground 
with their faded leaves, brave through the winter all 
the fury of the northern tempest. Before reaching, 
however, the inclement sky of the Arctic bounaary, 
this magnificent growth decays. Trees that had 
been the pride of the forest dwindle into meager and 
stunted shrubs. Beyond the Polar circle, these 
monarchs of the wood, if they appear, rise only to 
the height of a few feet, throwing out lateral branches. 
On Melville peninsula, dwarf- willow and the andro- 
tneda tetragona almost alone afforded to the Esqui- 
maux a scanty supply of wood for their arms and 
utensils. Considerable quantities of drift-timber are, 
however, frequently found along many of the barren 
shores of the Arctic regions, supposed to have floated 
originally from the mouths of the Siberian and other 
northern rivers. 

The plants which abound most in these dreary 
climates belong to the tribes of mosses and lichens, 
the cryptogamia of Linnaeus, the acotyledones of Jus- 
sieu. The meager vegetation with which the Arctic 
surface is covered thus appears rather as if it were 
an exudation from the rocks than the produce of the 
soil. Yet the moss and lichen, which form the pre- 
vailing features, are not only copiously produced, 
but possess a nutritious and salutary quality, not dis- 
G2 



78 VEGETABLE LIFE. 

played in more fortunate regions. One species of 
lichen (L. rangiferinus) forms, as it were, the main 
staff of life to the Laplander ; it supports the rein-* 
deer, and the reindeer supports him. The lichen 
of Iceland, boiled in soup, or even converted into 
bread, is to the natives a substantial part of their 
subsistence. Farther north, where the depth of the 
snow, and the continuance of frost, drive the inhabit-^ 
ants to the shore and to animal food, these vegeta* 
bles still afford support to the deer and to the other 
quadrupeds which they use as food. It is even with 
a peculiar species of moss that they trim their lamps, 
The fungus or mushroom, which draws nourishment 
without the aid of a proper root, and the filices or 
ferns, which consist only of one spreading leaf, the 
middle rib of which forms all their stalk, while their 
slender roots spread under the ground, — these find 
the means of existence even in Greenland. 

The order alga, and especially its genus fucus^ 
comprehending nearly all the variety of marine 
botany, grows in vast abundance on the northern 
shores. These rude plants, which have little or no 
distinction of stem, root, or leaves, and whose fructifi^ 
cation is often included within the substance of the 
frond, cover the Greenland coast with submarine mea-» 
dows. The confervcE,, too, with their numerous fila^ 
ments, spring \ip in profusion. 

A few plants, not belonging to this imperfect order 
of vegetation, embellish, during the short summer 
gleam, the northern fields. Under the bright infiu^ 
ence of the sun at this season, indeed, some of the 
most beautiful among the floral tribe expand their 
petals. The ranunculus and anemone display their 
rich and varied tints ; several species of saxifrage put 
forth their flowers ; and the yellow poppy has even 
a gaudy appearance — so that the genus papaver, 
which enriches the plains of Hindostan, is among the 
last to expire under the snows of the Pole. The 
nobler fruits do not ripen under this ungenial sky ; 



VEGETABLE LIFE. 7d 

yet shrubs producing delicious berries appear on the 
borders, at least, of the Arctic zone in matchless 
profusion. The northern Indians consider the fruit 
of a bush called the aronia ovalis as the most deli- 
cious food ; besides which they have the strawberry, 
raspberry, red whortleberry, and various others. 
Several of these are covered beneath the first snows 
of winter, which are supposed to mellow them, and 
which, when dissolved by spring, show the berries 
still hanging on the branches, while the buds of all 
the others are bursting, — the whole producing a deli- 
cious impression unknown to those who have not 
witnessed the desolation which immediately pre- 
ceded. 

These bleak climates enjoy a precious boon in the 
plants which act as an antidote to scurvy, and which 
defy the most severe cold of the Arctic zone. The 
cochlearia, a thick tufted juicy plant, of extreme fe- 
cundity, is emphatically called scurvy grass ; and the 
different species of sorrel, especially the rumex digy- 
nus, were found by Captain Parry flourishing under 
the snow at the very farthest limit of vegetation. 

The extraordinary phenomenon of red motsy ob- 
served by Capt. Ross and our other Arctic voyagers, 
naturally excited the greatest interest both at home 
and abroad. This singular aspect of a substance, 
with which we never fail to associate an idea of the 
purest and most radiant whiteness, has been ascer- 
tained to result from an assemblage of very minute 
vegetable bodies, belonging to the class of cryptoga- 
mic plants and the natural order called algoe. They 
form the species mmedprotococcus nivalis by Agardh, 
which is synonymous with the uredo nivalis of 
Mr. Bauer. This plant seems by no means pecu- 
liar to the Arctic snows, but occurs on limestone 
rocks in the island of Lismore in Scotland, as well 
as among the Alpine and other countries of Eu- 
rope. Saussure observed it so long ago as in the 
year 1760 on Mount Breven in Switzerland, and sO 



80 VEGETABLE LIFE* 

ft-equently after that period that he expresses his stir 
prise at its having- escaped the notice of Scheuchzer 
and other learned travellers* Ramond, whose ob- 
servations so beautifully combine the precision of 
science with the perception of the picturesque, found 
red snow on the mountains of the Pyrenees, as did 
Sommerfeldt, the botanist, on those of Norway. In 
the year 1818, vast masses of the same substance 
overspread both the Apennines and the Italian Alps ; 
and it is recorded, then ten years prior to that period 
the vicinity of Belluno and Feltri were covered to 
the depth of twenty centimetres with rose-coloured 
snow. 

According to Captain Ross, the Arctic mountains 
on which he observed the red snow are about 600 
feet high, and extend eight miles in length. The 
depth to which the colour penetrated has been vari- 
ously stated by different observers. Some found 
that it descended many feet beneath the surface, 
while others never ascertained that it spread beyond 
one or two inches. There is no reason to suppose 
that the colouring matter itself, as well as the snow, 
is a meteorological product, although Humboldt cer- 
tainly mentions a shower of red hail which fell at 
Paramo de Guanacos, in South America. Moisture 
is no doubt essential to the production of this plant, 
as it is to that of all the other algae ; but when once 
formed, it seems to possess the power of continued 
and increasing vegetation, even over rocks and stones, 
with only an occasional supply of fluid. The propa- 
gation of minute vegetable forms, like the increase 
of animalcules, is effected, under favourable circum 
stances, with a rapidity of developement truly asto- 
nishing ; and the most probable conjecture seems to 
be, that snow is not the natural situation of the proto- 
coccus nivalis, but that, from its great tenacity of life, 
it not only preserves its vitality on that chilly and 
ungenial surface, but, during the partial thawing of 
the snow, continues to increase and multiply. If 



VEGETABLE LIFE. 81 

such be the case, it is easy to suppose how a wide 
expanse may be covered with this red suffusion, 
during the dissolving and occasional flowing of the 
snowy waters. When once established among the 
eternal snows of the north, it becomes more nume- 
rous than the sands of the ocean ; and, increasing in 
density from year to year, at last presents to the as- 
tonished and admiring navigator a sight more sur- 
prising in its reality than any of the fabled wonders 
of an Arabian tale. 

A singular coincidence has been observed by bo- 
tanists to exist between a white ground and a red 
flower. Thus the rich and brilliant variety of an- 
thyllis vulnaria is only found on a chalky surface ; 
and many of the higher orders of flowering plants 
show a decided tendency to produce red-coloured 
petals when they happen to spring up on white lime- 
stone. "How much more forcibly, then," says 
Agardh, " must this law operate upon plants like the 
algae, in which colour is an essential part." That 
excess of light produces the peculiar, or at least pre- 
vailing, colour of the snow-plant, may be said to be 
demonstrated by this singular fact, that the red 
colour gradually changes to green as it occurs more 
or less secluded from the action of light among the 
fissures of rocks, or beneath the hollows or under- 
surfaces of stones. This being the case, it will ap- 
pear the less incomprehensible that the same plant 
which is produced amid the snows of the Arctic re- 
gions, or the highly-elevated Alps of more southern 
countries, should be occasionally detected, even dur- 
ing the heats of summer, covering the brilliant white 
limestone of the plains. In the last-named locality 
it was discovered by the Baron Wrangler in the pro- 
vince of Nerike, and named by him lepraria kerme- 
sina ; and the two supposed species have been since 
fiscertained to be one and the same. 

In concluding our notice of this singular subject, 
we may observe, that when the warmth of the return 



82 



VEGETABLE LIFE. 



ing sun has partially dissolved the surface of the 
snow, and thus contributed to the formation and de- 
velopement of these microscopical plants, the vivify- 
ing power of the solar light, aided by some peculiar 
and as yet unknown property belonging to the natura- 
whiteness of the snow itself, is highly influential in 
the production of the beautiful colour by which they 
are distinguished. 




ANCIENT VOYAGES. 83 



CHAPTER III. 

Ancient Voyages to the North. 

The voyages to the north, undertaken prior to the 
great era of maritime enterprise and the invention 
of the compass, were few in number, and scarcely 
extended into those circumpolar regions which form 
the special subject of the present volume. It will 
be enough, therefore, to take a rapid sketch of the 
steps by which discovery proceeded towards these 
remote and almost inaccessible quarters. 

The Mediterranean, the shores of which consti- 
tuted the first civilized portion of the west, was the 
quarter where European navigation originated. As 
Tyre, situated in the depth of that sea, was the 
earliest seat of commerce, Carthage, the daughter of 
Tyre, was doubtless the first state which undertook 
any extensive discoveries upon the ocean. These, 
however, were shrouded in deep mystery, prompted 
by the jealous and monopolizing temper of this 
people, once so powerful and opulent. The classic 
writers give only some slight and detached notices 
of the voyage of Himilco, who appears to have sailed 
along the exterior coasts of Spain and France, and 
to have reached the southern extremity of Britain. 
This was probably only the first of a series of 
voyages carried on with the view of procuring tin, a 
metal rare and valued in those days. The Cassi- 
terides, or islands of tin, which appear to be Corn- 
wall and the Scilly Isles combined together, are a 
mysterious and celebrated name among the primi- 
tive authors of Europe. 

The most distinguished of the Greek navigators to 



84 ANCIENT VOYAGES. 

the north was Pytheas, a citizen of Marseilles, a 
commercial Greek colony, which, favoured by its 
situation, had become the chief emporium of the 
commerce of Britain, already of some importance. 
This commerce, however, was carried on, not by the 
ocean, but by a land carriage through Gaul. Pytheas 
seems the first who, inspired by motives of intelligent 
curiosity, endeavoured by a maritime route to reach 
the British coast, and to penetrate to the remotest 
extremities of the north. Our knowledge of this 
voyage is indeed imperfect, since it is almost en- 
tirely due to Strabo, who, while he relates it, derides 
the whole as a palpable forgery ; yet the very par- 
ticulars on which he founds this charge go far to es- 
tablish the contrary. Pytheas appears to have passed 
the Straits, and sailed along the western coasts of 
France and Spain, which, from previous misconcep- 
tion, he confounds together. Thence he seems to 
have directed his course through the English Chan- 
nel, and along the eastern coasts of England and 
Scotland, till he reached the northern extremity of 
the island. Not content with this achievement, he 
continued to sail onwards into the depths of ocean, 
till in six days he arrived at Thule, an island, where 
it appeared to him that perpetual light reigned at 
midsummer through the day and night. Immediately 
beyond, his progress was arrested by a barrier of a 
peculiar nature, by something which was neither 
earth, air, nor sky, but a compound of all the three, 
forming a thick viscid substance, through which it 
was impossible to penetrate. These statements have 
afforded much advantage to the skeptical adversaries 
of Pytheas ; yet the summer days of Shetland are 
really very long, and the thick and gloomy mists, 
with which the northern sea is often loaded, might 
make a peculiar impression on one who had ventured 
into this unknown ocean, so far beyond the limit of 
former navigation : they might make him prone to 
believe that he had arrived at the farthest boundaries 



ANCIENT VOYAGES. 85 

of nature. It seems difficult, however, to suppose, 
with Bougainville, that the voyage of Pytheas should 
ever have extended as far as Iceland ; but in another 
direction he appears to have penetrated to the Baltic, 
and also to have brought home some correct accounts 
of its shores, then known to the people on the Medi- 
terranean almost solely by the qualities of the amber 
which was imported from thence. 

The voyage of Pytheas, though apparently quite 
authentic, did not lead to any change in the channels 
of Massylian trade. It was found probably both 
cheaper and more commodious to transport the pro- 
ductions of Britain through Gaul, than to convey 
them by means of such a lengthened and perilous 
voyage. The only farther additions to ancient 
knowledge respecting the northern seas were made 
by the Romans, who, in order to conquer, were 
obliged to explore the earth. Agricola, before 
undertaking the campaign which was to reduce 
Scotland into a province, sent fleets to explore its 
most northern shores and bays. The Romans, how-* 
ever, never appear to have sent naval expeditions, 
having discovery alone in view, to the north, or per- 
haps to any other quarter. Their delineation of 
Scotland itself is excessively rude ; and though they 
had traced the shores of Europe eastward as far as 
Russia, Scandinavia appeared to them only as a 
cluster of large islands in the North Sea. 

In the decline of the Roman empire, that country, 
formerly almost unknown, became the seat of a most 
formidable and extensive naval power. Norway, 
under the terrible dominion of Harold the Fair- 
haired, and Denmark, under Gorm and Canute, sent 
forth fleets which pillaged all the maritime territories 
of Europe, and reduced many of them to temporary or 
even final subjection. Thei^ expeditions, however, 
were from the north, not to the north. Their objects 
were, not science, but ravage and conquest. The 
Runic tribes, indeed, were not without some tincture 
H 



86 ANCIENT VOYAGES. 

of letters and poetry ; but their sagas, or poetical 
chronicles, celebrate only the exploits of their mighty 
sea-kings and rovers, not any theme connected with 
commerce and the arts of peace. Yet a communi- 
cation with these tribes enabled Alfred, an illustrious 
monarch, who shone so bright in that dark age, to 
collect information respecting those extremities of 
the earth which ^lad remained unknown to the 
Greeks and Romans. Ohthere, a chief who had 
come from the upper tracts of Norway, afforded 
some intelligence even respecting a voyage under- 
taken along the Arctic shores of Europe. 

Ohthere was considered a rich man in his own 
country, being owner of twenty oxen, twenty sheep, 
and six hundred tame reindeer. Fired by a spirit of 
liberal research, he undertook a voyage to discover 
the regions which lay to the north of the high latitude 
in which his domain was situated. He sailed six 
days in that direction, which appears to have brought 
him to the North Cape, the farthest point of Europe ; 
he then turned three days towards the east, and 
afterward five days to the south. All this while the 
land on his right was desolate, traversed only by a 
few wandering shepherds and hunters, of Finnish 
race. Then, however, he reached a large river, the 
opposite side of which was somewhat densely inha- 
bited by the Biarmians, or people of northern Russia, 
who showed such a hostile disposition as obliged him 
to return. The fishery of the horse-whale (walrus) 
was found to be carried on here with such advantage, 
that many were afterward induced to follow tlie 
same course. Forster delineates the navigation of 
Olithere as reaching to the interior of the White Sea ; 
but we do not think the period of eight days from 
the North Cape could have carried him farther than 
the river Kola, which agrees also with the supposi- 
tion of his having been arrested on the frontier of 
Russian Lapland. 

The direction in which the Northmen sought rich 



ANCIENT VOYAGES. 87 

kingdoms to plunder and to conquer was always the 
south. To quit their bleak regions in search of 
others still more bleak, would have been wholly 
foreign to their views ; yet, as the sea was covered 
with their sails, chance and tempest sometimes drove 
them in that other direction. In 861, Nadodd, 
during a piratical excursion, unexpectedly discovered 
Iceland. This country had little to tempt a nation 
of freebooters ; yet so it chanced, that there existed 
materials for its colonization. Harold, in making 
himself master of all Norway, had crushed the rights 
and sway of numerous petty chieftains, and had thus 
created a large body of malecontents. He was will- 
ing to grant, and they to accept, a permanent refuge 
in this frozen clime. Numerous bodies of emigrants 
proceeded successively to Iceland, where they were 
organized into a free and independent community. 
They even crossed to the opposite coast of Green- 
land, and formed settlements, which for some time 
were tolerably flourishing, though they have since 
either perished or lost all communication with Ice- 
land. During the eleventh century, however, chance 
or enterprise led Greenland navigators southward to 
another coast, which they called Vinland, and which 
has been very generally believed to be America, 
though, after a careful examination of the authorities 
on which this opinion rests, we have been led to sup- 
pose that the new country was merely a more south- 
ern point of Greenland^. The limits of the present 
work, however, will not admit any detailed account 
of these settlements. 

The republican cities of Italy, during the middle 
ages, rekindled the extinct spirit of commerce and 
navigation, which they raised to a degree of prospe- 
rity equalling probably that attained by Tyre and 
Carthage during the height of their ancient glory. 
These cities reached a measure of power and opu- 
lence which enabled them to rank with the greatest 
kingdoms. Their trade, however, lay chiefly within 



88 ANCIENT VOYAGES. 

the Mediterranean, especially its eastern border, 
whither were brought over land or by the Red Sea 
the commodities of India. Few were disposed to 
quit this bright and golden track to face the tem- 
pests of the ocean and of the north ; yet were there 
not wanting a few adventurous spirits who undertook 
and were able to penetrate into these remote seas. 

Nicolo Zeno, an eminent and noble merchant of 
Venice, undertook, in 1380, a voyage to Flanders, 
during which a tempest drove him upon a coast which 
he calls Friesland. The position of this unknown 
shore has been a subject of controversy ; and some 
have even had recourse to the hypothesis of its having 
been since swallowed up by the ocean. When, how 
ever, we find that Friesland was in fact a cluster of 
islands, to which are applied the names, Talas, Broas, 
Bres, Iscant, easily converted into Zeal, Brassa, 
Unst, we may conclude with Forster that it is pro- 
bably one and the same with the Shetland Isles. 
Zeno, being cast ashore in a state completely desti- 
tute, was received with great kindness by the Prince 
Zichmni, whose name seems to be a corruption of 
Sinclair. Finding Zeno eminently skilled in naval 
affairs, he reposed the highest confidence in him, and 
placed under his command various naval expeditions. 
So pleased was the Venetian with the favour of this 
northern potentate, that he invited his brother An- 
tonio to join him. The only voyage, however, which 
seems to have carried him far to the north was one 
to Greenland, and he gives a somewhat romantic 
account of a religious establishment formed in that 
country. The convent was built on the side of a 
hill, whence burst a copious boiling spring, whose 
waters enabled the monks to vanquish all the evils 
of the climate ; when spread on the frozen soil, they 
applied it for the production of the most useful herbs 
and culinary plants ; when introduced into the houses, 
they warmed with it the apartments, and cooked the 
victuals. Thev were likewise supplied from the 



ANCIENT VOYAGES* 89 

country with abundance of fish, reindeer, and wild 
fowl; and vessels from Norway brought to them the 
luxuries of life. Zeno undertook other voyages in a 
different direction, which have even been supposed 
to reach as far as America ; but we incline to think 
that the passages which have suggested this conclu- 
sion are either misunderstood or interpolated. 

Quirini, another Italian nobleman, in 1431, under- 
took a similar voyage, and was driven by a similar 
tempest on the coast of Norway. The southern 
mariners arrived in the most miserable plight, having 
lost the ship and been obliged to take to their boats, 
after the greater part of the crew had perished of 
hunger, cold, and especially thirst. They were thrown 
first on a small uninhabited island, where, having 
erected two tents, and found a large fish, they con- 
trived to support life. After some days, a fisherman 
and two boys came in a boat to the island, and were 
at first terrified by the sight of the strangers ; but, 
by courteous address, were soon prevailed upon to 
take with them two of the sailors, Gerard of Lyons, 
and Cola of Otranto. They rowed to a village on 
the neighbouring island of Rost, where they met the 
kindest reception. As it chanced to be Sunday, the 
priests exhorted the congregation to afford all the 
assistance in their power to these unfortunate stran- 
gers. Six boats were fitted out, the appearance of 
which dispelled all the fears of Quirini, and filled him 
with joy. The chief native now gave a cordial wel- 
come, and having set before him some rye bread and 
beer, invited him to the habitations on the island. 
The Italians were there received and treated with 
uninterrupted kindness during a stay of three months, 
in which time they completely recovered from all 
their distress and fatigue. The natives of this little 
island, about 120 in number, subsisted on stock-fish, 
which they dried and carried to the market of Ber- 
gen, where purchasers arrived from Germany and 
other countries; also on sea-fowl, which in vast 
H8 



90 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

flocks covered all the surrounding rocks, and even 
built on the sides of the houses. Many of these 
birds were so tame, that when the natives walked up 
to their nests, they were wont to step off, allow two 
or three eggs to be taken, and then resume their 
seat. The people were most strict in their attend- 
ance on religious duties, and carried their resigna- 
tion to the will of Providence so very far, that they 
rejoiced and sometimes even held a festival at the 
death of near relations. The Italians, accustomed 
to the feelings of southern jealousy, were extremely 
surprised to see all the members of a family sleep- 
ing together in one apartment, which they them- 
selves were admitted to share, without the remotest 
feeling of impropriety. In summer, both sexes 
walked naked to the nearest pool, and bathed, pro- 
miscuously, all in perfect innocence, and without 
awakening any suspicion, — a practice indeed which 
pretty generally prevails in the northern countries 
of Europe at the present day. 

The summer having arrived, Quirini took occasion 
to go with the annual ship to Drontheim, and, travel- 
ling thence by land to Sweden, he found a vessel 
bound for Rostock, in which he finally returned to 
Italy by way of England. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Voyages in Search of a North-East Passage. 

The latter part of the fifteenth century may be 
fixed upon as that period in the history of the world 
when maritime discovery proceeded on the greatest 
scale, with the most splendid results, and the most 
extensive influence on the condition of mankind. 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 91 

Travellers and navigators of the present day have 
displayed an enterprise which nothing could exceed ; 
but there remained for their efforts only the dark and 
distant boundaries of ocean, or the interior of barba- 
rous continents. On the contrary, vast kingdoms, 
new worlds, regions teeming with unbounded wealth, 
rewarded the daring career of Gama and Columbus. 
A new direction was given to human ambition and 
industry ; and the discovery of distant regions became 
not only a commercial speculation with individuals, 
but a grand object of national policy. 

England, one of the most powerful kingdoms of 
Europe, had always shown herself ready to embark 
in every scheme of utility : yet she was not alto- 
gether ripe for these extensive undertakings. The 
nations of Southern Europe were then nearly a cen- 
tury in advance of those ruder states which lay be- 
yond the Alps and the Pyrenees. Venice, Genoa, 
Seville, Lisbon, not London or Amsterdam, were the 
great schools of commerce and navigation. The 
habits and ideas of the feudal system, its proud in- 
dolence and contempt of mechanical pursuits, were 
only in the course of being gradually supersede d ; 
and the mercantile interest possessed as yet only a 
small share of that pre-eminent importance to which 
it has since attained. 

Henry VII., amid these unfavourable circum- 
stances, and with nothing of the heroic or adven- 
turous in his composition, possessed yet qualities 
which enabled him to appreciate the importance of ma- 
ritime undertakings. Every thing which afforded 
any promise of filling his coffers was congenial to the 
taste of that monarch ; and for this reason he showed 
himself ready to meet the aspiring views of Colum- 
bus with greater promptitude than any other monarch 
of the age. That great navigator, after vain solicita- 
tion at the courts of Spain and Portugal, sent his 
brother Bartholomew to make propositions to Henry, 
which were very readily accepted; but before his 



92 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

messenger returned to Spain, Columbus, under the 
auspices of Isabella, was already crossing the At- 
lantic. It was afterward with the full sanction and 
favour of Henry, though not at his expense, that John 
Cabot made that important voyage in which he dis- 
covered Newfoundland, an island which, though not 
fitted for culture, has become the well-known seat of 
the greatest fishery in the world. He was also the 
first European who came into contact with any part 
of the mainland of America. That prince afterward 
granted to John Elliot and Thomas Ashurst of Bris- 
tol, with several natives of Portugal, letters-patent, 
to undertake the discovery of lands and regions un- 
known ; but the result of their expedition is not re- 
corded. 

Notwithstanding these proceedings, England had 
not yet thoroughly imbibed the true spirit of mari- 
time enterprise. It had been kindled at a foreign 
shrine, and, when deprived of external support, gra- 
dually languished. This flame became nearly ex- 
tinct during the long reign of Henry VIII. That 
prince, full of bustle, needy of money, and not de- 
void of intelligence, might have been supposed rather 
prompt to embark in such enterprises ; but, involved 
in so many disputes, domestic and theological, and 
studying, though with little skill, to hold the balance 
between the two great continental rivals, Charles 
and Francis, he was insensible to the glory and ad- 
vantages to be derived from maritime expeditions. 
Sebastian Cabot, the son of the navigator just named, 
in order to obtain employment, was obliged to quit 
England and repair to Spain, where he was received 
with much favour, and spent the greater part of his 
life, either in attempts at discovery, or in a quiet re- 
sidence at Seville, where he was consulted and re- 
vered as a nautical oracle. 

After a long slumber, the maritime genius of 
England was suddenly roused. It burst forth under 
a young prince of high hope and promise. In 1553, 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 93 

the sixth year of the reign of Edward VL, the mer- 
chants of London, among whom are said to have been 
" men of great wisdom and gravity," felt a sudden 
and extreme ardour in the cause of discovery. 
There chanced at that critical moment to be in Lon- 
don no less a person than the younger Cabot, who had 
aided his father in the discovery of North America, 
and who, as already mentioned, had afterward, while 
residing abroad, become an oracle in every thing con- 
nected with navigation. With him the merchants en- 
tered into deep consultation, and in conjunction with 
him formed the general plan of a voyage, having • 
in view to reach, by way of the north and north-east, 
the opulent and celebrated regions of India and Ca- 
thay. The obstacles to such an undertaking could 
not yet be fully appreciated. No just idea could at 
that time be formed of the immense breadth of Asia, 
its extension towards the north, and the enormous 
masses of ice with which its shores are encumbered. 
The youthful monarch, whether he had any influ- 
ence in inspiring this general ardour, or whether he 
caught the flame from his people, showed certainly 
the most eager interest in the cause. He had already 
named Sebastian Cabot grand pilot of England, with 
a salary, considerable in that age, of £l66. It was 
not by royal munificence, however, that the funds 
were supplied for prosecuting this arduous enterprise. 
An association, or senate, as it is called, was formed, 
who judged it most advisable to divide the concern 
into shares of jG25, by which means the sum of six 
thousand pounds was easily raised, and employed 
in the construction and equipment of three vessels 
fitted for northern navigation. The preparations, 
with a due regard to the formidable character and 
length of the voyage, were made on a scale of which 
there had been no previous example ; Cabot says, 
"the like was never in any realm seen, used, or 
known. The timbers were made of extraordinary 
strength, by the best shipwrights; the keel was 



94 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

covered with thin sheets of lead, a contrivance then 
practised for the first time, and since found most im- 
portant ; provisions for eighteen months vrere put on 
board. Cabot, though unable, probably from his age, 
to accompany the expedition, drew out a series of 
instructions, in which the whole conduct to be ob- 
served by the officers and crew is minutely laid down. 
He enjoins strict attention to private conduct and 
morals ; that morning and evening prayers be read on 
board each ship, either by the chaplain or master ; 
that there be no " ribaldry or ungodly talk, dicing, 
carding, tabling, nor other devilish games." He pro- 
hibits all acts tending to the breach of discipline, 
" conspiracies, part-takings, factions, false tales, 
which be the very seeds and fruits of contention." 
Naval subordination being in that age only imper- 
fectly established, and the tendency to mutiny ex- 
tremely strong, these exhortations were most neces- 
sary and important. All questions respecting the 
steering of the ship were to be decided by a council 
of twelve, the captain having only a double vote. 
Persons skilled in writing were, in each ship, to keep 
a daily record of the course of navigation, the ce- 
lestial observations, the aspect of the lands along 
which they sailed, with every other interesting oc- 
currence. The masters of the different ships were to 
meet weekly, compare these records, and, after com- 
bining them with each other, enter them in a com- 
mon leger. Directions are even given for keeping 
weekly accounts, maintaining the cook-room and 
other parts of the ship clean, and preventing any 
liquor from being spilled upon them. The natives of 
the countries which they visited were " to be consi- 
dered advisedly, and treated with gentleness and 
courtesy, without any disdain, laughing, or con- 
tempt." Particular endeavours were to be made by 
fair means to allure some one on board, where lie 
was to be well clothed and treated, so as to allure 
o-thers; but we cannot so much applaud the hint, 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 95 

that " if he be made drunk with your wine or beer, 
you shall know the secrets of his heart." The mari- 
ners are exhorted, however, to use the utmost cir- 
cumspection in their dealings with these strangers, 
and if invited to dine with any lord or ruler, to go 
well armed, and in a posture of defence. The 
liveries furnished to the sailors were to be carefully 
kept by the mercantile agents, and to be worn only 
when their captain considered it an object to show 
them "in good array for the advancement and 
honour of the voyage." He warns the mariners not 
to be too much alarmed when they saw the natives 
dressed in lions' and bears' skins, with long bows and 
arrows, as this formidable appearance was often as- 
sumed merely to inspire terror. However, he seems 
to suggest a still more chimerical fear, when he tells 
them, that there are persons armed with bows, who 
swim naked, in various seas, havens, and rivers, 
" desirous of the bodies of men, which they covet 
for meat," and against whom diligent watch must 
be kept night and day. We know not whether some 
confused rumour of the shark and alligator had an 
influence in suggesting this strange precaution. 

The question was now to elect a fitting commander, 
and many offers were made both by persons qualified 
and unqualified. The choice for the supreme direc- 
tion fell finally on Sir Hugh Willoughby. His re- 
commendations, as mentioned by Adams, were high 
birth, tall and handsome person, valiant conduct, 
and skill in war, — ^merits probably enhanced by ad- 
miration of the heroism which impelled him to ad- 
venture himself in this new and daring career. No 
mention being made of nautical experience, it may 
be suspected, that, amid so many brilliant qualities, 
this most essential requisite was not duly taken into 
account. The command of the next vessel was given 
to Richard Chancelor, an deve of Henry Sidney, fa- 
ther of Sir Philip, and who first gave lustre to that 
great name. Sidney stood high in the favour of the 



96 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

kin^, and was inspired with the most ardent zeal 
for the promotion of the voyage. Chancelor is spe- 
cially commended for " the many good parts of wit 
in him," tending to inspire the most sanguine hopes 
of his success. 

All preparations being thus completed, King Ed- 
ward drew up a letter addressed to all " kings ^ 
princes, rulers, judges, and governors of the earth ;"". 
which, if composed by himself, certainly reflects very 
considerable credit upon his spirit and judgments 
He observes to these unknown potentates, that " the 
great and Almighty God hath given unto mankind, 
above all other living creatures, such a heart and 
desire, that every man desireth to join friendship 
with other, to love and to be loved, also to give and 
receive mutual benefits." He represents, therefore, 
the duty of showing kindness to strangers, and espe- 
cially to " merchants who wander about the world, 
search both the land and the sea, to carry such good 
and profitable things as are found in their countries 
to remote regions and kingdoms." With this view, 
it is stated, that a valiant knight, Sir Hugh Wil- 
loughby, and other trusty and faithful servants, had 
departed from England. " We therefore desire you, 
kings and princes, and all other to whom there is 
any power on the earth, to permit unto these, our ser- 
vants, free passage by your regions and dominions, 
for they shall not touch any thing of yours unwilling 
unto you." If such kindness were shown, he con- 
cludes, — " We promise, by the God of all things that 
are contained in heaven, earth, and the sea, and by 
the life and tranquillity of our kingdoms, that we 
will with like humanity accept your servants, if at 
any time they shall come to our kingdoms." 

It was judged inexpedient to delay the depart- 
ure of the vessels beyond the 10th of May, lest 
they should be overtaken by winter in the northern 
latitudes. All the members of the expedition took 
a solemn and tender leave of their relations, kindred. 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 97 

and " friends dearer than kindred," and were at their 
station on the appointed day. The vessels early in 
the morning dropped down from Ratcliffe to Green- 
wich, where the court, and, as it were, the nation, 
were assembled to witness and hail their departure. 
The king himself was confined by illness, but the 
principal courtiers stood at the palace windows, the 
rest of the household mounted the towers, while the 
people in crowds lined the shore. The ships fired 
their guns, causing the hills and valleys to resound ; 
and " the mariners shouted in such sort, that the sky 
rung with the noise thereof. In short, it was a very 
triumph." The thought of the distant and unknown 
seas into which they were so perilously plunging 
was either forgotten, in this moment of exultation, 
or served only to heighten its enthusiasm. 

The expedition, after stopping a few days at Black- 
wall, sailed down to Woolwich and Gravesend, and 
thence to the coast of Essex, where contrary winds 
unfortunately detained them till the 23d. Then, with 
a favouring gale, they quitted England, and shaped 
their course into the open expanse of the Gennan 
Sea. The sailors, however, fixed their eyes on their 
native land as it gradually receded, and many, unac- 
customed to these distant voyages, dropped a few 
natural tears at the thought that they saw it perhaps 
for the last time. 

Sir Hugh was desirous of touching at the coast of 
Scotland, but this was rendered impossible by con- 
trary winds, which obliged him also to make fre- 
quent changes of course, " traversing and tracing 
the seas." On the 14th July, he found himself in- 
volved in that labyrinth of isles which stud the 
coast of Norway between the 66th and 68th degrees 
of latitude. The ships then stood eastward and 
out to sea, till they came to the larger range of 
the Lofoot (Loffoden) Isles. The people, sub- 
ject to Denmark, were gentle and courteous ; but 
the English, evidently ignorant of this coast, sought 
I 



98 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

in vain to learn how these islands were situated 
with regard to the Norwegian shore. They pro- 
ceeded onward to the large island of Seynam, or 
Senjan, where they endeavoured without success to 
procure a pilot. They were now approaching the 
northern cape of Europe, and saw before them the 
?ibyss of the Arctic Ocean, stretching onwards to the 
Pole, and soon to be filled with snows and tempests. 
In this critical conjuncture, Sir Hugh assembled 
the commanders, and exhorted them to keep close 
together ; but, in case of separation, appointed their 
rendezvous at Wardhuys, understood to be the prin 
cipal port of Finmark. The wisdom of this precau- 
tion soon appeared. Before the English could enter a 
harbour, there arose such "flawes of wind and terrible 
whirlwinds," that they were obliged to stand out to 
the open sea, and allow the vessels to drift at the 
mercy of the waves. Amid the thick mists of the 
next stormy night the vessels of Willoughby and 
Chancelor separated, and never again met. Cle- 
ment Adams, who was with Chancelor, says, that 
as they were driving before the gale, the Admiral 
loudly and earnestly called upon them to keep close 
to him ; but that he himself carried so much sail, 
and his vessel was so superior, that Chancelor could 
not possibly obey this order* Willoughby^s pinnace 
was dashed to pieces amid the tempest ; and next 
morning, when light dawned, he could see neither 
of his companions ; but, discovering at length the 
smaller vessel called the Confidence, he continued his 
voyage. He now sailed nearly two hundred miles 
north-east and by north, but was astonished and be- 
wildered at not discovering any symptom of land ; 
whence it appeared that " the land lay not as thei 
globe made mention." The imperfect maps of thosef 
days appear not to have shown that rapid southerly 
bend which the coast takes towards the great opening* 
of the Waranger Fiord, on which Wardhuys is si- 
tuated. Instead, therefore, of sailing along or towards' 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 9U 

the coast of Norway, he was plunging always deeper 
and deeper into the abysses of the northern ocean. 
At length the soundings, indicating a depth of 160 
fathoms, proved the navigators to be far out at sea, in- 
volved in some great and perilous error. They then 
for some time took a direction to the south-east, yet 
afterward again turned to the north, and continued 
shifting their courses amid doubt and uncertainty. 
Thus, as they groped their way through these vast 
and stormy seas, at length land appeared, but high, 
desolate, and covered with snow, while no sound 
could be wafted over the waves except the crash of 
its falling ice, and the hungry roar of its monsters. 
This coast was evidently that of Nova-Zembla ; but 
there was no point at which a landing could be made. 
After another attempt to push to the northward, the 
mariners became sensible that the coast of Norway 
was to be found only by an entire change of direc- 
tion. They turned to the south-west, and having 
followed that course for a number of days saw the 
coast of Russian Lapland. Here they must have 
been very near the opening into the White Sea, into 
which, had fortune guided their sails, they would 
have reached Archangel, have had a joyful meeting 
with their comrades, and spent the winter in com- 
fort and security. An evil destiny led them west- 
ward, in the hope, probably, of reaching Wardhuys, 
the only point in those immense seas of which they 
had any distinct knowledge. The coast was naked, 
uninhabited, and destitute of shelter, except at one 
point, where they found a shore bold and rocky, but 
with one or two good harbours. Here, though it was 
only the middle of September, they felt already all 
the premature rigours of a northern season ; intense 
frost, snow, and ice driving through the air, as though 
it had been the depth of winter. The officers con 
ceived it therefore most expedient to search no longer 
along these desolate shores, but to take up their quar^ 
lers in this haven till the ensuing spring. They were 



100 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

surprised by the appearances of Arctic zoology, rein^ 
deer, foxes, polar bears, and " divers beasts to them 
unknown, and therefore wonderful." 

The narrative here closes, and the darkest gloom 
involves the fate of this first English expedition. 
Neither the commander nor any of his brave com- 
panions ever returned to their native shores. Aftei 
long suspense and anxiety, tidings reached England 
that some Russian sailors, as they wandered along 
these dreary boundaries, had been astonished by the 
view of two large ships, which they entered, and 
found the gallant crews all lifeless. There was only 
the journal of the voyage, with a note written in Ja- 
nuary, showing that at that date the crews were still 
alive. What was the immediate cause of a catas- 
trophe so dismal and so complete, whether the ex- 
tremity of cold, famine, or disease, or whether all 
these ills united at once assailed them, can now only 
be matter of sad conjecture. Thomson thus pathe 
tically laments their fate : — 

Miserable they, 
Who, here entangled in the gathering ice, 
Take their last look of the descending sun , 
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost. 
The long, long night, incumbent, o'er their heads, 
Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's fate, 
As with ^rst prow (what have not Britons dared ' ) 
He for the passage sought, attempted since 
So much in vain. 

We must now follow the career of Chancelor, with 
whom we parted amid the tempest which overtook 
the ships at the extremity of Norway. This com- 
mander pressed on, and, by keeping close to the 
shore, or by obtaining better information, succeeded 
without any difficulty in reaching Wardhuys. There 
he waited for his companion seven days, after which, 
disregarding the alarming reports of perils which 
would beset his farther progress, he pushed on gal- 
lantly towards his mysterious destination. " He held 
on his course towards that unknown part of the 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 101 

world, and sailed so far, that he came at last to tlie 
place where he found no night at all, but a conlmual 
light and brightness of the sun, shining clearly upon 
the great and mighty sea." As this was August, it 
seems mysterious how the perpetual light of the 
northern midsunimer should have been perceived for 
the first time, and have been ascribed to the progress 
eastward. Probably a course of gloomy weather 
had preceded and rendered it for the first time sensible. 
Thus, however, the adventurers were guided to the 
entrance of an immense bay, which was no other 
than the White Sea, — a grand feature yet unknown 
to Western Europe. They espied a little fishing-boat, 
the crew of which, having never seen a vessel of 
similar magnitude, were as much astonished as the 
native Americans had been at the Spaniards, and, 
taking the alarm, fled at full speed. Chancelor, with 
his party, pursued and overtook them ; whereupon 
they fell flat on the ground, half-dead, crying for 
mercy. He immediately raised them most courte- 
ously, and by looks, gestures, and gifts, expressed the 
most kind intentions. Being then allowed to depart, 
they spread every where the report of the arrival 
**of a strange nation, of singular gentleness and 
courtesy." The natives came in crowds, and the 
sailors were copiously supplied with provisions and 
every thing they wanted. 

Chancelor now, inquiring on what part of the 
world he had been thrown, learned that he was at 
the extremity of a vast country, then obscurely 
known to Western Europe under the title of Russia 
or Muscovy, and which was under the absolute rule 
of a sovereign named Ivan Vasilovitch. Although 
the court at Moscow was immensely distant, and 
could only be reached by sledges over the snow, 
Chancelor immediately began to negotiate for per- 
mission to visit the capital of this great potentate ; 
which he obtained after the delay of sending to 
Moscow. His journey to that city carrying him out 
12 



102 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

of the sphere of Arctic discovery, it will suffice to 
say, that he was received in the most satisfactory 
manner, and returned with a letter from the Czar, 
expressing a cordial desire to open an intercourse 
with England, and to grant to the Company of Mer- 
chant-Adventurers every privilege necessary to en- 
able them to carry on traffic in his kingdom. The 
traders now assumed the title of the Muscovy Com- 
pany ; and the same officer was again sent out with 
credentials from Philip and Mary, who, in conse- 
quence of the premature death of Edward, then filled 
the throne. The original object of an eastern pas- 
sage was not lost sight of; the captain being in- 
structed to make every possible inquiry on the sub- 
ject. The spirit of discovery at home was too ar- 
dent, however, to wait his return. A small vessel, 
called the Searchthrift, was fitted out in 1556, and 
placed under the command of Stephen Burroughs, 
who, on the first voyage, had acted as master of 
Richard Chancelor's vessel. Enthusiasm and hope 
seem to have risen as high as at the departure of the 
first expedition. Sebastian Cabot came down to 
Gravesend with a large party of ladies and gentle- 
men, and, having first gone on board, and partaken 
of such cheer as the vessel afforded, invited Bur- 
roughs and his company to a splendid banquet at the 
sign of the Christopher. After dinner, a dance being 
proposed, the venerable pilot started up and tripped 
it along with the most youthful of the party. 

Under these cheerful auspices. Burroughs, on the 
29th of April, sailed from Gravesend. Various cir- 
cumstances delayed till the middle of July his arrival 
at the islands and straits of Waygatz, between Nova 
Zembla and the continent. On the 21st the crew 
saw what they imagined to be land, but it proved to 
be " a monstrous heap of ice, which was a fearful 
sight to see." They were soon entangled in it, and 
for six hours could with difficulty avoid ono mass 
without striking upon another. Soon after an im- 



KOnTH-EAST VOYAGi:S. ID'S 

mense whale came so close, that they might have 
thrust a sword into him ; but, alarmed lest he should 
overset the vessel. Burroughs called together his 
men, and caused them to shout with all their might ; 
upon which this mighty animal, which is neither fe- 
rocious nor very courageous, plunged into the depths 
with a terrible noise. 

Among the i^ands of Waygatz, the English descried 
a Russian sail. The master, named Loshak, stated 
himself to be in extreme haste ; but, on receiving a 
glass, two pewter spoons, and two knives, he pre- 
sented seventeen wild geese, and gave much infor- 
mation. He stated this to be the country of the 
wild Samoides, who owned no subjection to Russia, 
hut ** will shoot at all men to the uttermost of their 
power that cannot speak their speech ;" it was even 
«aid that they ate the Russians. Loshak led the 
captain to a place left by these people, where there 
were still three hundred of their idols, the rudest 
workmanship Burroughs ever saw. They consisted 
of figures of men, women, and children, " very grossly 
wrought ; the eyes, mouths, and other parts stained 
with blood." We may here mention that Johnson, 
one of the party, when at the Pechora, had been 
present at a mighty scene of magic incantation, per- 
formed by one of the great northern wizards. This 
personage first took a great sieve, somewhat resem- 
bling a drum, then he began to sing " as we use in 
England to halloo, whoop, and shout at hounds," to 
which the company responded with — igha^ igha, igha 1 
At length the magician fell into convulsions, and 
dropped down as if dead, though he could still be 
heard breathing. Johnson, having asked the mean- 
ing of all this, was told — ^^ Now doth our god tell him 
what we shall do!" Having thus allowed him to 
remain for a short time, the people began to cry 
aghao, aghao / whereupon he rose and again began 
to sing. He next took a sword and thrust it through 
his b<?dy, causing it to enter at the breast and issue 



104 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

at the back. Johnson saw it go into the shirt 
before, and come out at the shirt behind, but 
does not seem to have scrutinized with any dih- 
gence its actual passage through the person. The 
sword, probably only of iron, had been heated, which 
would favour greatly a circuitous track. The magi- 
cian then sat down with a vessel of hot water before 
him, and a line or rope of deer-skin passed round his 
body, over all which, as well as himself, a spacious 
cloth mantle was spread. The ends of the line, be- 
ing left without the mantle, were drawn tight by two 
men on opposite sides, till something was heard fall- 
ing into the dish. Johnson, asking what this was, 
learned with horror that it was the magician's head, 
shoulder, and left arm, severed from the body by the 
violent pulling of the rope. Johnson besought that 
he might be allowed to lift the cloak and view this 
awful spectacle, but was assured that no one could do 
so and live. After the multitude had sung and hal- 
looed for some time, the cloak was lifted, when the 
wizard came forth perfectly entire, all the parts cut 
asunder having, it seems, been miraculously replaced. 
The imposture, however gross and obvious, appears to 
have completely succeeded with the ignorant natives. 
Burroughs had passed fifteen leagues beyond the 
mouth of the Pechora, and the soundings indicated 
an approach to Nova Zembla, when he came to the 
conclusion, that all attempts to penetrate farther this 
year would be abortive Among other causes, he 
mentions the untoward north and north-easterly 
winds, which were more powerful than in any other 
place he ever knew ; the great and terrible abundance 
of ice, of which he had reason always to expect 
greater store ; the nights waxing dark, and Winter 
with his storms beginning to draw on. Under these 
considerations he determined to return and winter at 
Colmogro, stating his intention to resume next sum^ 
mer his attempts to penetrate eastward ; but this, in 
consequence of other employment, was never carried 
into effect. 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. lOi 

There oceurred now a tragical incident connected 
with northern discovery. The Czar, Ivan Vasilovitch, 
sent back with Richard Chanceior his ambassador and 
orator, as he is termed, Osep Nepea Gregorowitch, with 
four ships heavily laden with furs, wax, train-oil, and 
other Russian commodities, to the value of upwards 
of £20,000, which belonged partly to the merchants 
and partly to the orator. On this homeward voyage, 
two of the vessels were wrecked on the coast of 
Norway, a third reached the Thames, but the Ed- 
ward Bona venture, in which were the chiefs of the 
expedition, was driven by the tempest into the bay 
of Pittisligo (Pitsligo), in the north of Scotland, where 
it went entirely to pieces. Chanceior endeavoured, 
in a very dark night, to convey himself and the am- 
bassador ashore in a boat. The skiff was over- 
whelmed by the tempest, and the captain drowned, 
though the ambassador, by great good fortune, suc- 
ceeded in reaching the land. He thence proceeded 
to London, where Philip and Mary gave him a splen- 
did and pompous reception. 

A disastrous character upon the whole was thus 
given to these voyages along the northern boundary 
of Europe and Asia. This wpuld not probably have 
damped the high spirit of enterprise by which the 
British were then animated; but the Muscovy Com- 
pany had their attention diverted by the project of 
opening a communication with Persia and India, 
across the Caspian, and by ascending the Oxus to 
Bochara. This scheme they prosecuted at great cost, 
and by a series of bold adventures, in which Jenkin- 
son, Johnson, Alcocke, and other of their agents, 
penetrated deep into the interior regions of Asia. 
An unusual degree of courage was indeed necessary 
to undertake this expedition, which was to be begun 
by passing round the North Cape to the White Sea, 
then by a land-journey and voyage down the Volga^ 
across the whole breadth of the Russian empire to 
Astrakhan, before they could even embark on the 



106 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

Caspian. The truth is, such a scheme was marked 
by the ignorance not less than by the boldness of 
early mercantile enterprise. It was soon ascertained, 
that no goods could bear the cost of such an immense 
and dangerous conveyance by sea and land; that 
the goods of India could be brought, and those of 
Europe returned, much cheaper and more commo- 
diously, by the way of Aleppo and the Mediterranean, 
than by this vast circuit round the stormy north. 
If the former conveyance, therefore, could not stand 
a competition with the water carriage by the Cape 
of Good Hope, how could the latter? It was aban- 
doned, and no attempt for a long time was made to 
levive it. 

This channel of intercourse with India having 
failed, the attention of commercial and nautical ad- 
venturers was again attracted to the possibility of 
effecting a passage by the north and east of Asia. 
Intelligence had just been received respecting the 
river Obi, which was reported to enter the ocean by 
seventy mouths, and which therefore seemed likely 
to communicate with the most important countries 
in the interior of Asia. John Balak, who had taken 
up his residence at Duisburg, on the river Osella, 
wrote to Gerard Mercator, the famous cosmographer, 
a particular account of this river, and of the efforts 
made by Assenius, a native of the Netherlands,' to 
penetrate eastward along the Asiatic coast. He 
mentions in particular another river called a tributary 
of the Obi, but which, from the details, appears 
rather to have been the Yenisei, down which came 
"great vessels laden with rich and precious mer- 
chandise, brought by black or swart people." In 
ascending this river, men came to the great lake of 
Kittay, (Baikal?) on whose banks were the Kara 
Kalmucs, who, he asserts, were the very people of 
Cathay. It was added, that on the shores of this 
lake had been heard sweet harmony of bells, and 
that stately and large buildings had been seen therein* 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 10? 

Hence Mercator, in a letter to Hakluyt, infers that a 
very small progress beyond the limit already reached 
by navigators would carry them to the great eastern 
realms of Japan and China. He maintained that 
the cape bounding the Gulf of Obi was no other 
than the great promontory of Tabis, which, accord- 
ing to Pliny, formed the north-eastern boundary of 
Asia; which being turned, the fortunate navigator 
would bear down direct upon Serica, Cathay, Cam* 
balu, — those regions with which ancient and modern 
rumour had identified the position of the Chinese 
empire. This was underrating the breadth of Asia 
by a hundred degrees of longitude, or more than a 
fourth of the circumference of the globe at this paral- 
lel ; yet so imperfect were the sources of knowledge 
in those days, that the error, however immense, can- 
not be considered as fatal to the reputation of this 
great geographer. 

To realize these views, Arthur Pet and Charles 
Jackman were supplied in 1580 with two vessels, the 
George and the William. On the 23d June they 
arrived at Wardhuys ; from which they sailed on the 
1st July. Approaching Nova Zembla they found 
themselves enclosed in a bay of ice, whence they 
were obliged to come out as they entered, and had 
much trouble before they were able to round the 
large field to which it belonged. On the 19th of 
July they saw Waygatz, and endeavoured to make 
their way along its southern coast ; but found it so 
shallow that they were compelled to turn and make 
a circuit by the north. Passing onwards they came 
to a fair low island, and found a passage between the 
ice and the shore, which, however, at length closed, 
and they could advance no farther. At the same 
time the ships were separated by large fields of ice, 
and could communicate only by beating drums and 
firing muskets, till they were able to warp round and 
rejoin each other. They enjoyed now the most 
favourable breeze ; but all was rendered vain by th^ 



IDS NOHTH-EAST VOYAGES* 

State of the ice. "Winds we have had at will, bnf 
ice and fogs too much against our wills if it had 
pleased the Lord God otherwise." The captains 
determined to return to Waygatz, where they might 
confer together, and endeavour to find a more open 
passage. Tliey were now obliged to warp from one 
piece of ice to another, some of them so large that 
they could not see beyond them from the topmast. 
They were repeatedly enclosed by these masses, en- 
veloped with dark fogs, and obliged to make fast 
their vessel to icebergs, where, "abiding the Lord's 
leisure, they continued with patience." On the 13th 
August the vessels were involved among pieces of 
loose ice, one of which broke the stock of their 
anchor, " and many other great blows we had against 
the same, that it was marvellous the ship was able to 
abide them." The boat, being between the floe and 
the brig, was struck, its side driven in, and the vessel 
itself was made to recoil backward. Pet and Jack- 
man did not reach Waygatz till the 16th August, by 
which time, it being found impracticable to attempt 
penetrating again to the eastward, they sought only 
to repass the North Cape. They appear ta have 
Been zealous, well-intentioned men; but, not duly 
acquainted with the history of ice, they adhered toa 
closely to the land, whence large masses are conti- 
nually detached or carried down by the rivers, while 
the open sea might have afforded better hopes of a 
prosperous navigation. 

The United Provinces, when roused to resistance 
by the ferocious bigotry of Philip, and by the cruel- 
ties of the remorseless Alva, after a long, hard, and 
glorious struggle, succeeded in establishing their 
little territory as an independent republic, 'jftience 
forth they began to look to the sea as the source of 
their greatness and prosperity. This element sur- 
rounded and penetrated their country on all sides,— 
it towered, as it were, above them ; and they hat. 
employed its inundations to defend their small domain 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. lOS 

against immensely superior forces* Commerce — a 
commerce embracing the globe — was necessary to 
compensate for the narrow limits within which they 
were hemmed, and to raise them to the first rank 
among the states of Europe. The East was the 
most promising quarter; but its approaches were 
strictly guarded, and they had not yet a fleet which 
could cope with the mighty armadas of Spain in the 
Atlantic and Indian seas. The North alone was open 
to their enterprise 5 and by passing its frozen bound- 
aries, they hoped to arrive at the rich and celebrated 
empires whence so ample a tide of wealth had flowed 
into Europe. 

The first expedition was undertaken by a private 
society of merchants, upon asking permission only 
of the States, and of their high admiral. Prince 
Maurice. Three vessels^ with a small yacht, were 
equipped at Amsterdam, Enchuysen, and Zealand* 
The pilot of the Amsterdam shipj to whose guidance 
the expedition was generally intrusted, was William 
Barentz, who approved himself as one of the most 
expert nautical men of the age* 

The squadron sailed from the Texel on the 5th 
June 1594, and on the 23d arrived at the island of 
Kilduin in Muscovy. Approaching Nova Zembla it 
was formed into two divisions^ one of which at-^ 
tempted to pass by the old route of the Strait of 
Waygatz ; but Baientz himself, taking a bolder 
course, endeavoured to pass round to the northward 
of Nova Zembla^ that great insular mass which op- 

Eosed, like a barrier, his eastward progress. Here 
e coasted the Bay of Lomsj so called from the 
numerous flocks of the bird of that name, probably 
the penguin, with wings so small compared to its 
ample body, that it seemed astonishing how they 
could support the creature's motion in the air. Pass- 
ing the Black Cape and William's Isle^ the Dutch 
saw various features characteristic of the Arctic 
World ; among others )he walrus, in large herds, that 
K 



110 NORTH-EASf VOYAGES. 

huge amphibious animal called variously sea-horse 
or sea-cow, of which they give a very good descrip- 
tion. Subsequently, at the Orange Isles, they came 
upon two or three hundred lying in heaps upon the 
sand, and basking in the sun. Having formed the 
erroneous idea that these animals are helpless on 
shore, the sailors marched against them as to an 
assured victory, congratulating themselves on the 
multitude of valuable teeth which would become an 
easy prize. So completely were they mistaken, that 
these gallant amphibia not only encountered, but 
beat them off with loss and dishonour, breaking in 
pieces the pikes, hatchets, and sabres employed in 
this fruitless assault. The crews sustained also the 
fierce encounter of the Polar bear. Having seen 
one on the shore, they entered their shallop, and dis- 
charged several balls at him, but without inflicting 
any deadly wound. They were then happy when 
they succeeded in throwing a noose about his neck, 
hoping to lead him like a lapdog, and carry him as a 
trophy into Holland. They were not a little alarmed 
by his mighty and tremendous struggles ; but what 
was their consternation, when he fastened his paws 
on the stern and entered the boat ! The whole crew 
hastily clung to the poop, expecting instant death, 
either from the sea or from his jaws. Providentially 
at this moment the noose got entangled with the 
iron work of the rudder, and the creature struggled 
in vain to extricate himself. Seeing him thus fixed, 
they at length summoned courage to advance and 
despatch him with their spears. 

Barentz, by the 1st August, reached the northern 
extremity of Nova Zembia, in lat. 77^ ; but the wind 
blew so strong, separating the ice into large flakes, 
that he and his crew, rather early it should seem, 
gave up hope and resolved to return. 

The two other vessels meantime pushed on along 
the coast, and in due time arrived at Waygatz. This 
island had a very agreeable aspect, being covered 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. Ill 

with verdure and abundance of flowers, herbs, plants, 
and particularly a great store of leeks. Large trees 
were lying piled in heaps over each other, which ap- 
peared very surprising, when neither on this nor the 
opposite coast was there a single one found growing; 
but it was rightly judged that they were brought 
down the rivers of Tartary, and drifted hither by 
winds and currents. On turning a point the Dutch 
observed one of those great collections of rudely 
carved images which had been formerly remarked by 
Burroughs. These consisted of men, women, and 
children, sometimes having from four to eight heads, 
all with their faces turned eastward, and many horns 
of reindeer lying at their feet : it was called, there- 
fore, the Cape of Idols. Forster alleges that the 
Samoiedes have been falsely charged with this idola- 
try, and that it were more charitable to conclude 
these to have been images of departed friends whom 
they cherished with pious veneration; but it does 
not very exactly appear how the Samoiedes should 
have had friends with six or eight faces. 

The expedition had some difficulty in working 
their way through the Strait of Waygatz, — after 
passing which, and sailing for some space along the 
coast of Nova Zembla, they were repelled by the icy 
barriers ; but having by perseverance rounded these, 
they arrived at a wide, blue, open sea, with the coast 
bending rapidly southward; and though this was 
only the shore of the Gulf of Obi, they doubted not 
that it was the eastern boundary of Asia, and would 
afford an easy passage down upon China. Instead, 
however, of prosecuting this voyage, they determined 
to hasten back and communicate to their countrymen 
this joyful intelligence. The two divisions met on 
the coast of Russian Lapland, and arrived in the 
Texel on the 16th September. 

The intelligence conveyed in regard to the latter 
part of this expedition kindled the most sanguine 
hopes in the government and people of Holland 



112 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

Prince Maurice and the States-General no longet 
confined themselves to empty praise and sanction, 
but supplied funds to aid in a fresh voyage. Six 
i^essels were fitted out, not as for adventure and dis- 
covery, but as for assured success, and for carrying 
on an extensive traflic in the golden regions of the 
East. They were laden with merchandise, and well 
supplied with money ; while a seventh, a light yacht, 
was instructed to follow them till they had passed 
Tabis, the supposed bounding promontory of Asia ; 
when, having finally extricated themselves from the 
Polar ices, and directed their course to China, it was 
to return to Holland with the joyful tidings. Petei 
Plancius, the most celebrated cosmographer of that 
age, drew up a map for their guidance, — doubtless 
in our eyes a very crude performance, but which 
combined all the geographical lights of that ignorant 
period. 

The armaments, which at that early epoch were 
set forth with the greatest pomp and the most ample 
equipment, usually issued in the most lame and 
abortive results. These large and heavily-laden ves- 
sels were peculiarly ill fitted for winding their way 
through narrow seas and channels encumbered with 
ice. Of all the northern expeditions, accordingly, 
none answered less than the present the great cost 
and magnificent expectations with which it had been 
equipped. 

The squadron sailed from the Texel on the 2d of 
June (1595), a period of the season decidedly too 
late. Nothing great occurred till the 4th August, 
when they reached the strait between Waygatz and 
the continent, to which they had given the appellation 
of the Strait of Nassau. They came to the Cape 
of Idols ; but though these were still drawn up in full 
array, no trace was found of the habitations which 
they might have seemed to indicate. A Russian ves" 
gel, however, constructed of pieces of bark sewed 
together, was met on its way from the Pechora to 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 113 

the Obi in search of the teeth of the sea-horse, whale- 
oil, and geese. The sailors accosted the Dutch in a 
very friendly manner, presented eight fat birds, and 
on going on board one of the vessels, were struck 
with astonishment at its magnitude, its equipments, 
and the high order with which every thing was ar- 
ranged. This being a fast-day, they refused meat, 
butter, and cheese; but, on being offered a raw 
herring, eagerly swallowed it entire, head and tail 
inclusive. 

The navigators, after considerable search, fell in 
witli a party of Samoiedes, who are described as a 
people of small stature, broad and flat face, little eyes, 
short legs, and wrapped entirely in reindeer skins, 
except a few who wore coloured cloth lined with fur. 
They manifested considerable jealousy of strangers, 
and on the approach of the interpreter, had drawn 
their arrows to shoot him; but he called aloud, 
" We are friends ;" upon which they laid down their 
weapons, and saluted him in the Russian style, by 
bending their heads to the ground. The intercourse 
which followed was conducted on their part with 
considerable courtesy and good sense, mingled with 
a feeling of precaution and even alarm. On hearing a 
gun fired, they ran away and leaped like madmen, 
till assured that no harm was intended; and they 
were then amused by seeing a little stone placed on 
an eminence struck and shattered to pieces by a mus- 
ket ball. A sailor boldly went up to the chief, dig- 
nified in the narrative with the title of king, and pre- 
sented him with some biscuit, which the monarch 
graciously accepted and ate, though looking round 
somewhat suspiciously. At length the parties took a 
friendly leave ; but a native ran after the foreigners 
with signs of great anger, on account of one of their 
rude statues which a sailor had carried oflf. These 
figures were now judged to be divinities, and the 
bones found lying before them the remains of sacri- 
fices oflfered to them in that capacity. The Dutch 
K 2 



114 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

seem to have formed a still lovirer estimate than Bui- 
roughs of Samoiede sculpture. These images are de- 
scribed as little better than logs, somewhat rounded 
at the top to represent ahead, with a slight projection 
for the nose, two little holes for eyes, and one larger 
aperture to represent the mouth. 

The discoverers had been informed, in answer to 
diligent inquiries, that beyond a point which might 
be reached in about five days' sail, there extended a 
large open sea to the south-east. They made re- 
peated attempts to reach this point ; but, after emerg- 
ing from the Strait of Waygatz, were always driven 
back by large bodies of floating ice. They perse- 
vered till the end of September, when these masses 
entered the Waygatz in such force that they were 
obhged with all speed to quit it by the western open- 
ing, and bend their sails towards Holland, without 
having accomplished any one of the brilliant objects 
for which this expedition had been undertaken. 

A very considerable disappointment was felt in 
that country at the failure of an expedition, from 
which such sanguine hopes had been cherished. 
The States-General declined supplying funds for a 
fresh armament ; but they proclaimed a reward to any 
individual or body of men by whom the object might 
be successfully accomplished. The town-council of 
Amsterdam, with great spirit, determined to fit out 
another squadron, on a smaller scale, and equipped 
only for discovery. They prepared two vessels, 
which were respectively intrusted, one to Barentz, 
and the other to John Corneliz Ryp, with seemingly 
an equal division of power. Suspecting apparently 
a prevalence of home-sickness, they admitted on 
board none but unmarried persons, who, it was 
hoped, would be animated with a bolder spirit of en- 
terprise, and less inclined to long for return. 

The vessels set sail, still rather too late, on the 
loth of May, 1596. Their object seems to have been 
to avoid the coast of Russia and the Straits, to shun 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 115 

even Nova Zembla, and to push on direct through the 
wide expanse of the Northern Ocean. They even 
stood inadvertently somewhat to the west, and on 
the 22d came in view of the Shetland Islands. 
Barentz urged that they should turn due east, in 
order to compensate this deviation ; but Corneliz in- 
sisted that this would carry them at once into the 
Strait of Waygatz, the scene of so many abortive ef- 
forts, and insisted upon steering towards the north- 
north-east. After passing the Shetlands, they saw 
the most brilliant celestial phenomena they had ever 
witnessed. The sun was attended by two parhelia 
or mock suns, while a bright rainbow traversed all 
the three suns, and two other bows crossed the hea- 
vens in different quarters. On the 5th June some 
sailors called out, that a multitude of white swans 
were swimming in the water; but the more expe- 
rienced gave warning that these swans would be found 
to be made of ice, and accordingly they were soon 
sailing in the midst of these moving masses. For 
two days they proceeded between them as between 
two lands ; while the colour of the sea, which was 
green as grass, gave them the idea of being near the 
country called Greenland ; but Scoresby has shown, 
as is elsewhere observed, that this colour is produced 
by the contents of the sea itself. On the 9th the ad- 
venturers discovered a long island rising abruptly 
into steep and lofty cliifs, the highest of which has 
borne the appropriate name of Mount Misery. Pen- 
nant, who erroneously supposes Bennet, in 1603, to 
have been the first discoverer, observes, — " The hor- 
ror of this isle to the first discoverers must have been 
unspeakable : the prospect dreary ; black where not 
hid with snow, and broken into a thousand precipices. 
No sounds but of the dashing of the waves, the 
crashing collision of floating ice, the discordant notes 
of myriads of sea-fowl, the yelping of Arctic foxes, 
the snorting of the walruses, or the roaring of the 
Polar bears." The hills were so excessively steep, 



116 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

that though a party contrived to clamber up, they 
durst not look down, and the descent proved most 
doubtful and perilous. At length, applying their 
backs to the face of the steep, they slid down with 
safety, which Barentz, who looked up, could never 
have thought possible. From a bear, which the 
Dutch attacked, and vainly attempted to secure by a 
noose, they gave to it the name of Bear island, which 
the English afterward attempted to supplant by that 
of Alderman Cherie. Proceeding onward, still by 
too northerly a course, they reached the latitude of 
80°, and discovered a coast which soon proved to be- 
long to a country of great extent. This was Spitz- 
bergen, or East Greenland, which, from the latitude, 
they probably approached near its northern point of 
Hakluyt's Headland. The name of Greenland, which 
has in some degree adhered to this island, was given 
under the erroneous impression of its belonging to 
that great extent of coast, so called by the Icelanders, 
in distinction from which it has been called East 
Greenland. 

The Dutch, finding theirprogress eastward stopped 
by this line of coast, now retraced their route along 
its deep bays, still steering southw^ard till they found 
themselves again at Bear Island. Here Corneliz and 
Barentz differed once more ; the former still adhering 
to his original views, and recommending that they 
should again push northward, and endeavour to 
find their way along the eastern coast of the newly- 
discovered land ; but Barentz insisted more ration- 
ally, that they ought to steer east-south-east, and en- 
deavour to round the northern point of Nova Zembla. 
Being unable to agree, and Barentz being resolved 
for this time not to yield, they determined to separate, 
and to make trial each of his respective course. Ba- 
rentz, whom we follow, proceeded according to his 
plan, till at midday, on the 17th July, he found him- 
self off the coast of Nova Zembla ; he had gone too 
far south, and was obliged to turn again northward. 



NORTH-EAST VOl^AGES. 117 

He pushed on as vigorously as possible, but it was not 
till the 6th August that he doubled Cape Nassau ; but 
here finding the ice drifting along in large masses, 
and being involved in deep fogs, he judged it expedient 
to moor his vessel to a large iceberg. As the master 
was walking on deck, he saw a large bear endeavour- 
ing to scale the sides of the ship. He immediately- 
called out, " All hands up !" and the crew, having 
mustered, raised loud cries, which induced the mon- 
ster to retreat ; but he soon returned to the charge. 
They had now a sail raised along the deck, and four 
guns loaded, which were fired with such effect, that the 
bear fled, and sought shelter amid huge masses of ice. 
On the 10th of August the ice began to separate, 
and the seamen remarked that the herg to which they 
were moored was fixed to the bottom, and that all 
the others struck against it. Afraid that these loose 
pieces would collect and enclose them, they quitted 
their moorings and sailed on. The ice was already 
forming on the surface, and the ship in sailing through 
made it crack on all sides. The Dutch worked on 
their way, mooring themselves to successive frag- 
ments, one of which rose like a steeple, being twenty 
fathoms above and twelve beneath the water. They 
saw around them more than four hundred large ice- 
bergs, the fear of which made them keep close to the 
shore, not aware of that being the quarter where 
these dangerous bodies were formed, and along 
which they chiefly ranged. However, they steered 
on, and having passed what they called Little ley 
Cape, came to Orange Island, which forms the 
northern extremity of Nova Zembla. Here ten men 
swam on shore, and, having mounted several piles 
of ice which rose, as it were, into a little mountain, 
they had the satisfaction of seeing the coast tending 
southward, and a wide open sea to the south-east. 
They hastened back to Barentz with these joyful 
tidings, and the success of the voyage was considered 
almost secure. 



118 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

But these hopes were delusive. After doubling 
v^^hat was called Cape Desire (now Zelania), the ice- 
bergs mustered in such force, that the crews gave 
up all idea of doing more than reach the strait of 
Waygatz on their return home. They were driven, 
however, so rapidly before the floating masses, that 
three men who had mounted one of them to recon- 
noitre, would have been left behind, but for extraor- 
dinary exertions of agility. They were now drawn 
direct into what they called Icy Port, and the vessel 
was thrown into a position almost perpendicular, 
with one end nearly touching the bottom. From 
this critical attitude they were relieved next day ; 
but fresh masses of ice continually poured in, aug- 
menting the terrible ramparts with which they were 
enclosed. One side of the vessel was raised by suc- 
cessive pieces jammed beneath it, but the other was 
similarly elevated ; so that the ship was lifted to the 
top of the ice as by machinery. All this time the 
cracking, both around them, on every side, and 
within the ship itself, was so dreadful, that they were 
in continual fear of its parting into fragments ; but 
this interior cracking, arising merely from the freez- 
ing of the juices of the timber, was much less dan- 
gerous than they imagined. 

The Dutch now felt that they must bid adieu for 
this year to all hopes of escape from their icy prison. 
As the vessel was cracking continually, and opening 
in different quarters, they made no doubt of its going 
to pieces, and could hope to survive the winter only 
by constructing a hut, which might shelter them 
from the approaching rigour of the season. Parties 
sent into the country reported having seen foot- 
steps of reindeer, also a river of fresh water, and, 
what was more important still, a great quantity of 
fine trees, with the roots still attached to them, 
strewed upon the shore. Not one of these trees 
could have grown on the frozen soil of Nova Zembla ; 
thev were all brought down the rivers of Muscovy 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 119 

and Taitary, and wafted over the ocean by winds 
and currents. This circumstance gave a peculiarly 
cheerful colour to the hopes of the mariners. They 
trusted that Providence, which had in this surprising 
manner furnished materials to build a house, and 
fuel to warm it, would supply also whatever was 
necessary for their passing through the approaching 
winter, and for returning at length to their native 
country. A sledge was instantly constructed ; three 
men cut the wood, while ten drew it to the spot 
marked out for the hut. They sought to raise a 
rampart of earth for shelter and security, and em- 
ployed a long line of fire in the hope of softening the 
ground, but in vain. — The carpenter having died, it 
was found impossible to dig a grave for him, and 
they lodged his body in a cleft of the rock. 

The building of the hut was carried on with ar- 
dour, as affording the only hope of life ; yet the cold 
endured in this operation was intense, and almost 
insupportable. When a nail was put into the mouth, 
it was frozen to the lip, and brought the skin away, 
drawing blood. The snow sometimes fell so thick, 
for days successively, that the seamen could not stir 
'from under cover. They had at the same time hard 
and perpetual combats with the Polar bear. One 
day the master saw from the ship three of these furi- 
ous animals running towards the working party, and 
gave them warning by loud cries. They immedi- 
ately ran towards the vessel ; when one of them, in 
his haste, fell into a cleft in the ice, and was given 
up for lost ; but the bears overlooked him, and con- 
tinued their pursuit of the main body. The sailors 
having at length reached the ship, made the circuit 
of it, and mounted from behind ; but their pursuers 
entered in front, and advanced furiously to the attack. 
A. man, sent down to the kitchen to light a match, 
was in too great haste and agitation to accomplish 
that simple process, and the muskets were thus use- 
less. The crew could now parry the assault only by 



120 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

throwing at the bears whatever came first to hand^ 
by which the attention of the animals was always 
for a moment attracted, though they returned to the 
charge with fresh vigour. At length, when matters 
seemed approaching to extremity, a halberd was 
darted at the largest, which struck him on the mouth 
with such force that he retreated, and the others fol- 
lowed. 

Notwithstanding this intense rigour, winter had 
not yet thoroughly set in. Several days of south* 
west wind dissolved a vast quantity of ice, and they 
saw a wide open sea without, while the vessel was 
enclosed within, as it were, by a solid wall. By 
October they completed their hut, and prepared to 
convey thither their provisions and stores. Some 
painfid discoveries were now made. Several tuns 
of fine Dantzic beer, of an agreeable and medicinal 
quality, and from which they had anticipated much 
comfort, had frozen so hard as to break the casks, 
bursting even the iron hoops by which they were 
held. The contents, indeed, existed in the form of 
ice, but this, when thawed, had merely the taste of 
bad water; and though in the middle they found a 
liquor concentrating in itself the whole strength of 
the beer, it had not the true flavour and character of 
that beverage. They made trial of mixing the two 
together, but witiiout being able to restore its proper 
relish and virtue. 

The sun, which had hitherto been their only plea- 
sure and consolation, began now to pay only short 
visits, and to give signs of his approaching departure* 
He rose in the south-south-east and set in the south- 
south-west, while the moon was scarcely dimmed by 
his presence. On the 1st November his full orb was 
still seen for a short interval ; on the 2d it rested on 
the horizon, from which it did not detach itself; on 
the 4th the sky was calm and clear, but no sun rose 
or set. 

The dreary winter night of three months, which 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 12i 

had now set in, was not, however, without some 
alleviations. The moon, now at the full, wheeled 
her pale but perpetual circle round the horizon. 
With the sun disappeared also the bear, and in his 
room came the Arctic fox, a beautiful little creature, 
whose flesh resembled kid, and furnished a variety 
to their meals. They found great difficulty in the 
measurement of time, and on the 6th rose only late 
in the day, when a controversy ensued whether it 
was day or night. The cold had stopped the move- 
ments of all the clocks, but they afterward formed 
a sand-glass of twelve hours, by which they contrived 
tolerably to estimate their time. 

On the 3d December, as the sailors lay in bed, they 
heard from without a noise so tremendous as if all 
the mountains of ice by which they were surrounded 
had fallen in pieces over each other. In fact, the 
first light which they afterward obtained showed a 
considerable extent of open sea : yet this disruption 
must have been produced by a merely internal move- 
ment of the ice, not by any tendency towards thaw. 

As the season advanced, the cold became always 
more and more intense. Early in December a dense 
fall of snow stopped up all the passages by which the 
smoke could escape : so that a fire, at all fitted for 
the dreadful inclemency of the season, led to the 
danger of suffocation. The men were thus obliged 
to keep the room at a miserably low temperature, for 
which they used the imperfect remedy of heated 
stones, passed from one bed to another. One great 
trouble was how to wash their clothes ; whenever 
they took these up from the boiling water, and began 
to wring them, the linen froze in their hands ; and 
when they hung them up to dry, the side farthest 
from the fire was hard frozen. The cold becoming 
always more rigorous, ice two inches thick was 
formed on the walls. At length their sufferings 
came to such an extremity, that, casting at each other 
languishing and piteous looks, they anticipated that 
L 



122 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

this must end in the extinction of life. They now 
resolved that, cost what it might, they shoidd for 
once be thoroughly warmed. They repaired, there- 
fore, to the ship, whence they brought an ample sup- 
ply of coal ; and having kindled an immense fire, and 
carefully stopped up the windows and every aperture 
by which the cold could penetrate, they did bring 
themselves into a most comfortable tempera ure. In 
this delicious state, to which they had been so long 
strangers, they went to rest, and talked gayly for 
some time before falling asleep. Suddenly, in the 
middle of the night, several awakened in a state of 
the most painful vertigo ; their cries roused the rest, 
and all found themselves, more or less, in the same 
alarming predicament. On attempting to rise, they 
became dizzy, and could neither stand nor walk. At 
length two or three contrived to stagger towards the 
door ; but the first who opened it fell down insensible 
among the snow. De Veer, who stood behind, re- 
vived him by pouring vinegar on his face ; and the 
wintry air, which had been their greatest dread, now 
restored life to the whole party. 

These unhappy mariners being thus compelled to 
afford a certain access to the wintry blast, its effects 
became always more and more insupportable. It 
seemed as if the fire had lost all power of conveying 
heat : their clothes were white with snow and hoar- 
frost ; their stockings were burned before the feet 
felt any warmth, and this burning was announced by 
smell rather than by feeling. Yet, in the very midst 
of these sufferings, remembering that the 5th January 
was the feast of the Kings, they besought the master 
that they might be allowed to celebrate that great 
Dutch festival. They had saved a little wine and 
two pounds of flour, with which they fried pancakes 
in oil; the tickets were drawn, the gunner was 
crowned king of Nova Zembla, and the evening 
passed as merrily as if they had been at home round 
their native fireside. Nothing can more strikingly 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 123 

illustrate the salutary effects produced even in these 
desperate circumstances by mental occupation and 
amusement, — effects of which Captain Parry after- 
ward made so happy a use. 

About the middle of January the crews beg-an to 
experience some abatement of that deep darkness 
in which they had so long been involved. On throw- 
ing a bowl, they could see it run along the ground, 
which was before impossible. Soon after, about 
midday, a faint flush was seen to tinge the horizon ; 
and this first dawn of the annual morning revived in 
their hearts the hope which was almost extinguished. 
On the 24th De Yeer and two others ran in to say 
that they had seen a portion of the sun's disk. Ba- 
rentz demonstrated, from the structure of the earth, 
that this could not take place for fifteen days. Many, 
however, trusted more to the eyes of their compa- 
nions ; and bets were taken, which could not be de- 
cided in the two following days in consequence of a 
heavy fog in which the air was involved. The 27th, 
however, being clear, they went out in a body, and 
saw, ascending above the horizon, the full orb of 
that great luminary. Joy took possession of their 
hearts, and Barentz in vain continued to prove, that 
this appearance was contrary to every principle of 
science. He was not aware of the extensive power 
of refraction in this northern air, which in Capt. Par- 
ry's expedition, produced a similar abridgment in the 
duration of the Polar winter. 

Affairs now assumed a more cheerful aspect. In^ 
stead of constantly moping in the hut, the men wei^ 
out daily, employed themselves in walking, running, 
and athletic games, which warmed their bodies and 
preserved their hoalth. With the sun, however, ap- 
peared their old enemy, the bear. One attacked them 
amid so thick a mist that they could not see to point 
their pieces, and sought shelter in the hut. The bear 
came to the door, and made the most desperate at- 
tempts to burst it open ; but the master kept his 



124 NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

back firmly set against it, and the animal at last re- 
treated. Soon after he mounted the roof, where, 
having in vain attempted to enter by the chimney, he 
made furious attempts to pull it down, having torn 
the sail in which it was wrapped ; all the while his 
frightful and hungry roarings spread dismay through 
the mansion beneath ; at length he retreated. An- 
other came so close to the man on guard, who was 
looking another way, that, on receiving the alarm 
from those within and looking about, he saw himself 
almost in the jaws of the bear; however, he had the 
presence of mind instantly to fire, when the animal 
was struck in the head, retreated, and was afterward 
pursued and despatched. 

The first reappearance of the sun had inspired 
hopes that the weather would become continually 
more mild and agreeable. It was, therefore, a severe 
disappointment, when, in February, a heavy north- 
east gale brought a cold more intense than ever, and 
buried the hut again under snow. This was the more 
deeply felt, as the men's strength and supply of ge- 
nerous food to recruit it were alike on the decline. 
They no longer attempted daily to clear a road, but 
those who were able went out and in by the chim- 
ney. A dreadful calamity then overtook them m the 
failure of their stock of wood for fuel. They began 
to gather all the fragments which had been thrown 
away, or lay scattered about the hut ; but these being 
soon exhausted, it behooved them to carry out their 
sledge in search of more. To dig the trees, how- 
ever, out of the deep snow, and drag them to the hut, 
was a task which, in their present exhausted state, 
would have appeared impossible, had they not felt 
that they must do it or perish. 

In the course of March and April, the weather be- 
came milder, and the attention of all the crew was 
drawn to plans and prospects of return. Southward 
on the side of Tartary, the icy masses were still 
floating, but to the north-east there was an immense 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES* 125 

open sea. Yet the barriers which enclosed the ship 
not only continued, but, to their inexpressible grief, 
rapidly increased, probably from the fragments which 
floated in upon the breaking up of the great exterior 
mass. In the middle of March these ramparts were 
only 75 paces broad, in the beginning of May they 
were 500. These piles of ice resembled the houses 
of a great city, interspersed with apparent towers, 
steeples, and chimneys. The sailors, viewing with 
despair this position of the vessel, earnestly en- 
treated permission to fit out the two boats, and in 
them to undertake the voyage homeward. The mas- 
ter at length agreed, provided there was no better 
prospect by the end of May. From the 20th to the 
26th a north wind came on, and blew upon them a still 
greater quantity of ice ; so that they no longer hesitated 
to begin their work, and to bring from the ship sails 
and cordage. The mere digging of the boats from 
under the snow was a most laborious task, and the 
equipment of them would have been next to impos- 
sible, but for the enthusiasm with which it was un- 
dertaken. By the 11th June they had the vessels 
fitted out, their clothes packed, and the provisions 
embarked. Then, however, they had to cut a way 
through the steeps and walls of ice which intervened 
between them and the open sea. Amid the extreme 
fatigue of digging, breaking, and cutting, they were 
kept in play by a huge bear which had come over the 
frozen sea from Tartary. 

At length, the crew, having embarked all their clothes 
and provisions, set sail on the 14th with a westerly 
breeze. In the three following days they passed the 
Cape of Isles, Cape Desire, and came to Orange Isle, 
always working their way through much encumber- 
ing ice. As they were off Icy Cape, Barentz, long 
struggling with severe illness, and now feeling his end 
approach, desired himself to be lifted up that he might 
take a last view of that fatal and terrible boundaiy, 
on which he gazed for a considerable time. 
L2 



126 NORfH-EAST VOYAGES. 

On the following day the vessels were again in- 
volved amid masses of drift-ice, and were so forcibly 
struck, as well as squeezed between opposite fields, 
that the men had bid a final adieu to each other. See- 
ing, however, a body of fixed ice at a little distance, De 
Veer took a rope and leaped from fragment to fragment, 
till he arrived on the firm surface. A communica- 
tion thus formed, they landed first the sick, then the 
stores and provisions, and, finally, they drew the 
boats themselves upon the ice. During this deten- 
tion, Barentz, being informed of the severe illness of 
one Adrianson, said, that he himself was not far from 
his end. As he continued, however, conversing and 
looking on a chart of the voyage made by De Veer, 
it was thought that his disease could not be so seri- 
ous, till he pushed aside the chart, asked for a draught 
of water, and immediately expired. This event ex- 
tremely afflicted the crews, both from their personal 
attachment to Barentz, and the loss of his skill in 
piloting the vessels. 

The sailors, with some drift-wood, repaired the 
boats ; the ice, however, was still close around, and 
they were struck with the fear that they would never 
escape from this bank, but must perish upon it. On 
the 22d,, however, there appeared open sea at a little 
distance, and having dragged the boats over succes- 
sive pieces of ice, they were again afloat. In the 
three following days they reached Cape Nassau, the 
ice frequently stopping them, but opening again like 
the gates of a sluice, and allowing a passage. On 
the 26th they were obliged once more to disembark 
and pitch their tents on the frozen surface. On the 
opposite coast they saw immense herds of sea-cows 
(walrus), and the air darkened with numberless 
birds. While they were fast asleep in the tent, the 
sentinel called out, " Three bears ! three bears /" The 
whole crew were instantly out ; their muskets were 
charged only with small shot for birds; however 
" these sweetmeats," though they could not inflict any 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 127 

serious wound, induced the monsters to turn, when 
one of them was pursued and killed. The dead bear 
was carried off in the mouth of one of the survivors 
to the most rugged parts of the ice, where the two 
devoured a large portion of his carcass. 

The year was now advanced ; the bright light of 
the sun and the occasional south-westerly breezes 
dissolved the ice, and gradually opened a way before 
them. It brought) however, dang-ers of a new class. 
The distinction between fixed and floating ice had 
now almost ceased, the former melting continually 
away. As they thought themselves lying secure on 
a large field, a body of icebergs came in from the 
open sea, struck and dashed it to pieces. The pack- 
ages were separated from the boats, and several 
dropped into the water. It was laborious to scram- 
ble over the detached fragments to a place of safety, 
while the weighty articles sank into the softened ice, 
not without the greatest risk of falling to the bottom. 
For twelve hours the sailors floundered through this 
loose and broken surface before they could establish 
themselves on the field which was attached to the 
land. 

The 2d of July was the finest day yet seen in Nova 
Zembla; and the weather, continuing favourable, 
produced on the 7th an open sea, to which, with 
great labour, the men succeeded in dragging the 
boats. From this time their progress, though often 
obstructed, was never entirely stopped. In several 
of the rocky bays they caught an immense number 
of birds, these poor animals not having yet learned 
to fear man, and allowing themselves to be taken by 
the hand. Near Admiralty Bay they saw two hun- 
dred sea-cows lying on a bank of ice, and attacked 
them ; but these powerful animals advanced to the 
combat, snorting and blowing in so tremendous a 
manner, that, had not a fresh wind sprung up, the 
mariners might have been in a serious predicament ; 
and they repented bitterly, amid so many inevitable 



12S NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 

evils, to have brought on themselves one so very un- 
necessary. 

On the 28th, after passing the bay of St. Lawrence, 
when they approached to the southern extremity of 
Nova Zembla, the navigators discovered, with sur- 
prise and joy, two Russian vessels at anchor. They 
approached, and wei*e received with the usual cour- 
tesy of that nation. Several of the Russians recol- 
lected having met them in the former voyage, and 
were truly astonished, instead of the large and 
handsome vessels whose equipment they had so 
much admired, to see them in these miserable open 
boats, with meager and wasted frames. After mutual 
presents, the parties agreed to sail together to Way- 
gatz, but were separated by a heavy gale. On a 
small isle the Dutch found abundance of cochlearia, or 
scurvy-grass, by the use of which the sick recovered 
in a manner almost miraculous. On the 3d August 
they steered their course to the south-south-west, 
and, though somewhat obstructed by ice, came on 
the 4th in view of the coast of Russia. They had a 
tedious but safe coasting voyage to Kola, where, to 
their joyful surprise, they found John Corneliz, who 
received them with the greatest kindness, and af- 
forded them a comfortable passage to Amsterdam. 
As no account was ever given of this commander's 
own voyage, it may be presumed that it did not lead 
to any important discovery. 

The question as to a north-eastern passage was not 
yet considered as finally determined. The London 
merchants next took it up, and, in 1608, fitted out 
Henry Hudson, who had already distinguished him- 
self by a voyage to Spitzbergen, and proved one of 
the greatest of the early navigators. The design of 
Hudson appears to have been, not to entangle himself 
in the straits and islands on the Russian coast, but to 
strike direct into the channel between Nova Zembla 
and Spitzbergen. He dropped down to Blackwall 
on the 22d April, and on the 3d June saw the North 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 129 

Cape, bearing south-west. He still pushed on to the 
north and east, till he reached the latitude of 75 de- 
grees, when he found himself entangled among ice. 
He at first endeavoured to push through, but, fail- 
ing in this attempt, turned and extricated himself 
with only " a few rubs." On the 12th June he expe- 
rienced a thick fog, and had his shrouds frozen ; but 
the sky then cleared, and afforded bright sunshine 
for the whole day and night. On the 15th, Thomas 
Hilles and Robert Rayner solemnly averred, that, 
standing on deck, they had seen a mermaid. This 
marine maiden is described as having a female back 
and breast, a very white skin, and long black haii 
flowing behind ; but on her turning round they de- 
scried a tail as of a porpoise, and speckled like a 
mackerel. It seems uncertain which of the ceta- 
ceous species suggested this fancied resemblance to 
the human form. 

Hudson continued to push on eastward, varying, 
according to the wind, between the latitudes of 74° 
and 75°. On the 25th, however, heavy north and 
north-easterly gales, accompanied with fog and 
snow, obliged him to steer south-easterly ; and this 
course, on the 26th, brought him to the coast of Nova 
Zembla, in lat. 72° 25'. Here, seemingly with prema- 
ture resignation, when June was not yet closed, he con- 
cluded that it were fruitless to attempt to hold this 
year a more northerly course ; in place of which he 
resolved to try the old and so often vainly-attempted 
route of the Waygatz. From this he was diverted by 
the view of a large sound, which appeared to afford 
an equally promising opening. On its shores also 
were numerous herds of morses, from which he hoped 
to defray the expense of the voyage. Nova Zembla, 
on the whole, seen under this Arctic midsummer, pre- 
sented to him somewhat of a gay aspect. He says, 
it is " to man's eye a pleasant land ; much mayne 
land, with no snow on it, looking in some places green, 
and deer feeding ^bereon." The sound, however, as 



130 NORTH-EAST VOYAGMS. 

might have been conjectured from the strong* current 
which came down, terminated in a large river, and 
the boats soon came to anchorage in one fatliom. 
The morses also, though seen in great numbers, could 
never be brought to close quarters. The ice now 
came in great masses from the south, " very fearful 
to look on ;" and though, " by the mercy of God and 
his mighty help," Hudson escaped the danger, yet by 
the 6th of July he was "void of hope of a north-east 
passage," and, determining to put his employers to 
no farther expense, hastened home to England. 

We know not whether the Muscovy merchants 
had been fully satisfied with the zeal displayed by 
Hudson in this expedition; for we find him in 1609 
setting sail from the Texel under the auspices of the 
Dutch East India Company, whose hopes of a 
northern passage had again revived. On the 5th May 
he passed the North Cape, and on the 19th came in 
view of Wardhuys. Hudson, though so excellent a 
navigator, is a most unsatisfactory writer. His nar- 
rative, amid vague complaints of fog and ice, shows 
only that he determined to turn his prow, and seek 
to repass the North Cape, whence he steered across 
the Atlantic to America. Forster says that he 
reached Nova Zembla, an assertion directly contrary 
to the captain's own narrative, and inconsistent with 
the time spent in this part of the voyage. Accord- 
ing to Constantin, the crew, consisting chiefly of 
seamen accustomed to seek India by the tropical 
route, were soon alarmed by the fogs, tempests, and 
floating ice of the north. The truth is, Hudson's 
own mind seems to have been fixed on north-western 
discovery. This appears from several hints in his 
second narrative ; and he was probably inclined to 
content himself with a mere show of proceeding 
eastward, that, apparently bafiied, he might follow 
his favourite direction. He seems to have been im- 
pressed with the expectation of finding an open sea 
between Virginia and Newfoundland; and in fact 



NORTH-EAST VOYAGES. 



131 



he discovered the important bay which receives the 
river called after him, the Hudson, and on which 
New- York has been since built ; but this lies out of 
our present sphere. 

The Russia Company made afterward some at- 
tempts to establish a factory on the Pechora ; but, 
after persevering for two or three seasons, they re- 
linquished this undertaking. 

In 1676, Captain John Wood, on his own sanguine 
representations of the probability of a north-eastern 
passage, was sent out by the Admiralty in the Speed* 
well. On the farther coast of Nova Zembla, how- 
ever, his vessel went to pieces, and the crew, cast on 
shore, with difficulty reached their companion, the 
Prosperous Pink, which afforded them a passage 
homeward. Wood, though he had done nothing to 
throw light on the question, brought home an im- 
pression respecting it so very gloomy, that the plan 
of penetrating to India in this direction was thence- 
forward given up, and has not been revived even in 
the eras of the most enthusiastic enterprise. 




132 EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 



CHAPTER V. 

Early Voyages towards the Pole. 

The attention of the public, it has appeared, had 
been early drawn towards a Polar passage, which, 
by striking directly across the ice and tempests of 
that great boundary, might bring the navigator by 
a shorter route than any other to the golden realms 
of the East. Mr Robert Thorne, the zealous pro- 
motei of early discovery, in his memorials to Henry 
VHL and other great men, placed always foremost 
the scheme of reaching India by this daring course. 
It was not wonderful, however, that such a voyage 
should not be the very first direction of modern en- 
terprise. A century had elapsed from the discovery 
of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, and half 
that period since the commencement of the naval 
career of Britain, before her seamen, despairing of 
success by the more circuitous eastern and western 
tracks hitherto followed, put forth all their strength, 
and attempted to penetrate this mighty northern bar- 
rier of the earth. 

Barentz, in his third voyage, had discovered Spitz- 
bergen, called at first New-Land, and afterward 
Greenland; but it was by fishing expeditions that 
English vessels were first attracted into the high la- 
titudes of the Greenland or Polar Sea. In 1603, Al- 
derman Sir Francis Cherie, of London, fitted out the 
Godspeed, under the command of Stephen Bennet, 
seemingly with a vague scheme of pushing into the 
northern seas in search of whatever fortune might 
befall. Bennet began by the beaten track of the 
North Cape, Wardhuys, and Kola; from which last 



EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 133 

place, reversing" his direction, he pushed north and 
north-west into the Arctic Sea. On the 16th August, 
at two o'clock, he descried two hills which seemed 
to rise above the clouds. In four hours he reached 
the Bear Island of Barentz ; and not aware, it should 
seem, of its previous discovery by that navigator, gave 
to it, from his own employer, the name of Cherie 
Island. Here the sailors caught only two foxes and 
a few fishes; for though they saw the teeth of a 
morse, proving that those animals did " use there,'' 
the season was judged too far advanced to commence 
operations against them. They returned by way of 
Kola and the North Cape, and reached the Thames 
on the 15th October. 

Sir Francis, on the return of the ship, though it 
came empty, judged there was encouragement enough 
to send out next year the same vessel and commander. 
Bennet, accordingly, not only went out a second time, 
but made several successive voyages, in which the 
capture of the morse was carried on with considera* 
ble extent and success. 

While these fishing voyages were going on, Henry 
Hudson, in 1607, was sent out by the Muscovy Com- 
pany to penetrate, if possible, directly across the 
Pole. It was the first occasion of this very bold at- 
tempt, and the first recorded voyage of this eminent 
navigator. Hudson, who sailed on the 1st May, after 
having cleared Scotland, and passed the latitude of 
Iceland, took a direction westward, being desirous 
to survey the northern and unknown boundaries of 
Greenland, thinking there might be an open sea in 
that direction as likely as in any other. On the 13th 
.Tune, the ships were involved in thick fog, their 
shrouds and sails being frozen ; but when it cleared 
next morning, the sailors descried a high and bold 
headland, mostly covered with snow, behind which 
rose a castellated mountain, named the Mount of 
God's Mercy. Rain now fell, and the air felt tem- 
perate and agreeable. They steered eastward to clear 
M 



134 EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 

this coast ; but, after being for some time enveloped 
in fogs, again saw land, very high and bold, and 
without snow even on the top of the loftiest moun- 
tains. To this cape, in 73°, they gave the name of 
Hold-with-Hope. 

Hudson now took a north-eastward direction, and 
on the 27th faintly perceived, amid fogs and mist, 
the coast of Spitzbergen. He still pushed northward, 
till he passed the 79th degree of latitude, where he 
found the sun perpetually ten degrees above the hori- 
zon, yet the weather piercingly cold, and the shrouds 
and sails often frozen. The ice obliged him to steer 
in various directions ; but, embracing every opportu- 
nity, he pushed on, as appeared to him, to SU^, and 
saw land still continuously stretching as far as 82°. 
But as the northern extremity of Spitzbergen does 
not lie beyond 81° of north latitude, he must here 
have committed some mistake, either in his latitudes, 
or in mistaking for land extensive fields and masses 
of ice. It has been supposed that he had again 
reached the opposite coast of Greenland; but this 
seems inconsistent with his bearings, which are 
always more or less to the eastward. The latitudes 
of 81° and 82° he considers to be so completely 
barred with ice as certainly to defeat all attempts at 
a passage to the Pole in this direction. It appeared 
to him, however, that these seas might be frequented 
with great advantage on account of the immense 
multitude of seals with which they abound. He re- 
turned, coasting along Spitzbergen, some parts of 
which appeared very agreeable ; and on the 15th of 
September arrived in the Thames. 

The Muscovy Company, still the most enterprising 
maritime body in England, determined yet to fit out 
another expedition for Polar discovery. They in- 
trusted ii to Jonas Poole, who had distinguished him- 
self in the Cherie Island voyages ; and it was hinted 
to him that though discovery was to be his main ob- 
ject, yet he might catch, at intervals, some morses, 
and even one or two whales, to make the voyage 



EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 135 

deft-ay its own expenses. Poole took his departure 
m due season, sailing from Blaekwall on the 1st 
March, 1610. By the 16th he had reached the coast 
of Norway, in lat. 65° ; but the wind then blew from 
the north so "extreme fierce, with great store of 
snow and frost," and the vessel was so laden with 
ice, that it could not maintain a " fore course," but 
was driven back as far as Scotland. Here he re- 
mained till the 12th April, when, favoured by a 
southerly breeze, he again set sail, and, after many 
storms, snows, and extreme frosts, came in view, on 
the 2d May, of the North Cape. He then steered for 
Cherie Island, near which he judged himself to be on 
the 6th ; but the fog was such that he could not see a 
cable's length, and " the ship had many a knock ; 
but, thanks be to God, no harm was done." Continu- 
ing to beat about in this obscurity, he entirely missed 
Cherie Island, and the first land seen was in 76° 50', 
being the shores of a sound on the coast of Spitzber- 
gen, which, from the deers' horns found there, he 
named Horn Sound. He pushed on to 77° 25', where 
he found the air more temperate than he had felt it 
at the North Cape at the same season. Soon, how 
ever, there was a complete reverse ; the ship was in 
volved in thick fogs, — and wind, frost, snow, and 
cold seemed to strive for the mastery. After many 
a sore stroke he got the vessel through; but the 
mainsail was still " frozen as hard as ever he found 
any cloth," and could with great difficulty be set. 
He discovered an island, which he called Blackpoint, 
and the., nearest promontory he named Cape Cold; 
but next day the weather changed so entirely that, 
had he fallen in with it then, he would have given it 
a gentler appellation; therefore he called another 
cape Fair Foreland. Poole's views continued to 
brighten when he found that the sun, as the season 
advanced, gave a most powerful heat ; that the ice 
was melted on the ponds and lakes, while that which 
still floated on the sea was not nearly so huge as he 
had seen it in 73 degrees. He conceived favourable 



136 EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 

hopes, therefore, even after so sharp a beginning, 
and judged that a passage by the Pole was as likely 
to be found in this as in any other unknown direc- 
tion. He might therefore have been expected to ap- 
ply himself in the most zealous and determined man- 
ner to seek the passage. A large herd of morses, 
however, having come in sight, he despatched his 
crew in pursuit of them ; and from this time there is 
not another word of discovery, — but the taking of the 
walrus and the deer, and now and then the attack 
of the whale, absorb his whole attention. He met 
with some dangers. One day he attacked a herd of 
morses lying on ice, which proved hollow, and sud- 
denly broke, whereon ice and beast slid into the sea 
together, and the crew had great difficulty in not 
going along with them, especially one man ; for, be- 
sides being crushed by the weight of dead morses 
and ice, the animals that were alive struck at him in 
the water and severely bruised him. Upon the 
whole, he judged Spitzbergen to be milder than 
Cherie Island, and was surprised at the great number 
of deer, and at the care of Providence, which enabled 
them to subsist with so little pasturage, with only 
the rocks for a house, the starry canopy for a cover- 
ing, and not a bush or a tree to shelter them from the 
nipping cold of winter. 

Although Poole returned from this voyage without 
having done or almost attempted any thing, yet as 
he brought a considerable store of oil and morses' 
teeth, his employers were not ill satisfied. They 
fitted him out next year in the Elizabeth of 50 tons, 
and in their instructions distinctly informed him that 
discovery was to be his main object ; yet intimated, 
that as he proceeded with the Mary Margaret des- 
tined for the whale-fishery, he might begin with join- 
ing her in taking a whale or two, and in his course 
along the coast kill as many morses as might chance 
to present themselves. Having extracted the oil, he 
was to floor the hold with their skins, which a tanner 
had agreed to purchase of the company ; but all this 



EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 137 

only to lighten the cost of discovery, and not to be 
in any degree a primary object. 

The vessels set sail early in April (1611), but were 
soon separated by fogs and storms ; and when Poole 
reached the coast of Spitzbergen, he found only three 
boats escaped from the wreck of the Mary Margaret. 
In the rest of his proceedings we never hear a single 
word of Polar discovery; but he applied himself 
most diligently to the secondary object ; and by the 
3d of August he had accumulated oil, morse skins, 
and teeth, to the extent of 29 tons, — a good lading, 
he observes, for a ship of 50. Accordingly it proved 
her ruin. As the last package was brought in she 
went entirely to one side, and all the morse skins 
which lay loose in the hold, slipping in the same di- 
rection, carried her entirely under water. Poole, 
who sat in the cabin, considered himself as having 
oii^ the selection of two deaths, either to be drowned 
by remaining, or, in attempting escape, to be killed 
by the casks, staves, and divers other things which 
were traversing the ship in every direction. He 
chose the latter alternative as the least certain, and 
though twice beaten down, was plucked from the 
jaws of death, being enabled to crawl out with only 
his scull laid open, his ears, back, and ribs severely 
bruised. The crew, who all escaped, were taken on 
board a Hull ship commanded by Thomas Marma- 
duke, of whom Poole makes many complaints, which 
Purchas, thinking too diffuse, has omitted. Of 
Greenland in general Poole observes, that when he 
went first, the mountains and plains were almost 
white with snow ; afterward they appeared green 
with grass and a little moss ; but, lastly, the sun 
with his powerful heat dissolved the ice, and exhaled 
such a profusion of vapours, that the day there dif- 
fered little from the darkest night elsewhere. 

He was, nevertheless, sent out a third voyage in 
1612 with two vessels, the Whale and the Seahorse; 
but he seems on this occasion also to have busied 
M2 



139 EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 

himself solely in the attack of whales, which he 
killed to the amount of thirteen. Nothing is men 
tioned of any thing being either attempted or pro 
jected in relation to discovery ; but he relates that 
Thomas Marmaduke penetrated to the latitude of 82° 
No detail, however, is given, nor have we any narra 
live from Marmaduke himself; which is to be re- 
gretted, as he seems to have been more deeply im- 
bued with the spirit of discovery than anj other 
mariner of that time. 

The next expedition was in 1613, under William 
Baffin, the most learned navigator of the age, and 
one of the greatest names in northern discovery. It 
was not, however, by this voyage that he obtained 
his reputation, though he was provided with six good 
and well armed ships ; the object seems to have been 
little else than to chase from the Greenland seas all 
other vessels that might attempt to use them for 
fishery. Their system was, whenever they fell in 
with a foreign vessel, to summon the master on 
board, show the king's commission granted to the 
worshipful Company, and desire them to depart, on 
pain of having a cannonade immediately opened upon 
them. The strength of the English being in general 
decidedly superior to that of any other squadron that 
appeared in those seas, these terms were usually ac- 
ceded to without any attempt at opposition. At one 
time, indeed, five vessels, Dutch, French, and a large 
one of 700 tons from Biscay, mustered, and showed 
signs of offering battle ; but the Biscayner having 
lost courage and yielded, the rest were obliged to 
follow his example. Another Dutch ship having re- 
fused, and endeavoured to make off, so brisk a fire 
was opened upon her, that she had nearly run on 
shore, and was fain to submit. A considerable num- 
ber of Enghsh sailors seem to have been on board 
these foreign ships, who were all, wherever they 
could be found, forcibly taken out. It seems diffi- 
cult to discover on what ground the English founded 
their right to these coasts, since they had neither 



EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 4 lS'9 

oeen the first discoverers, nor held them in any sort 
of occupation. In fact, they were not able ultimately 
to make good the pretensions assumed in so violent 
a manner. 

There is no mention of any anxiety or efforts of 
Baffin for the purpose of discovery. On the con- 
trary, Marmaduke, who had been again attempting 
to penetrate to the north of Spitzbergen, was chid- 
den as having thereby hindered the voyage, and was 
prohibited from any farther attempts of the kind this 
season. The former, however, made some curious, 
and at that time novel, observations on the effects 
of refraction, in high northern latitudes. 

The Company still did not consider the question 
<!)f a northern passage decided, as indeed since the 
time of Hudson it could not be said to have been 
seriously attempted. In 1614 they appointed Robert 
Fotherby, in the Thomasine, to accompany their great 
Greenland fleet of ten ships and two pinnaces, and 
while the rest were busied in fishery to devote him- 
self mainly to discovery. Baffin accompanied him 
as pilot. After considerable obstructions, eleven 
ships being at one time fast among the ice, the cap- 
tain, by the 6th of June, pushed on to Hakluyt's 
Headland. He endeavoured to penetrate through 
Magdalena Bay, which he calls Maudlen Sound ; but 
the weather was foul, and the ice lay unbroken from 
shore to shore. On the 10th, the weather permitting, 
he stood farther out, and succeeded in passing to the 
north of Hakluyt's Headland; but the ice now pre- 
sented an impenetrable barrier. Fotherby then 
steered westward, in hopes of a more favourable 
opening ; but the ice trending south-west, he sailed 
twenty-eight leagues without success, and then re- 
turned to the Foreland. About the middle of July, 
the air becoming clear and favourable, the com- 
mander and BailSn ascended a high hill, to see what 
prospect there was of getting forward ; but, as far 
<is they could discern, ice lay upon the sea, which 
indeed seemed wholly " bound with ice," though in 



140 EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 

the extreme distance there was an appearance of 
open water, which inspired some hope. After 
amusing themselves for some days with whale-kill- 
ing, they again mounted a very high hill, whence 
they saw an extensive sound, but much pestered 
with ice. This was Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, 
which they afterward ascended to its head, and found 
a good harbour, very advantageously situated for 
the whale-fishery. 

It was now the 9th of August, and Fotherby saw 
two Dutch ships, that had been appointed for north- 
ern discovery, making their way southward; but 
he was determined not to be baffled without some 
farther struggle. He pushed to the northward from 
Cape Barren, and had made twenty-four leagues, 
when he met the ice. He coasted along it for two 
days, hoping for some adventure among its shat- 
tered fragments ; but a north wind sprang up, with 
heavy snow, and every thing being cold, thick, and 
winter-like, he was forced again into harbour. The 
shore and hill being now covered with snow, the 
men's minds became possessed with a desire of re- 
turning to England ; but Fotherby was unwilling to 
depart without some farther satisfaction. He went 
in a boat up Redcliffe Sound, and though ice was 
newly formed upon it, of about the thickness of a 
half-crown piece, he pierced through, and got into 
open water. The snow, however, continued to fall 
thick, and the east wind forcibly blew in the ice, so 
that they were glad to return to the ship. Passing 
a point, it was observed that a cross which they had 
erected, with the king's arms and a sixpence nailed 
upon it, had been taken down, " sixpence and all," 
by the Dutch, and Prince Maurice's arms substi- 
tuted; this, however, was speedily redressed. 

About the end of August, a gale sprang up from 
the south-west, and brought milder weather than at 
any former period of the season ; and the strength 
of the thaw was proved, by the huge masses falling 
from the snowv banks into the sea, with a noise 



EARLY POLAR TOYAGES. 141 

like thunder. Conceiving better hopes, Fotherby 
pushed out again, in a north-west direction, till he 
came nearly to the latitude of 80°, when he heard a 
mighty noise of the waves, as it were, breaking on 
an extensive shore. It proved, however, that he was 
now on the margin of the great northern ice. He 
coasted for some time along that grand barrier ; but 
was soon embayed, and with difficulty extricated. 
The season advancing, he took the benefit of a north 
wind to steer homeward, and on the 4th October ar- 
rived at Wapping, with his whole crew of twenty-six 
men in perfect health. 

Fotherby, having recommended himself on this 
voyage by spirit and digilence, was sent out next 
year (1615) by the worshipful Company, in the 
Richard, a pinnace of only twenty tons. After many 
conflicts with ice and fog, he reached Hakluyt's Head- 
land about the beginning of July. He soon began 
his career of discovery ; but a strong southerly gale 
driving him upon the ice, shattered his bark consi- 
derably, and obliged him to return. As soon as his 
vessel was refitted, he endeavoured, by a westerly 
course, to find an opening among the ice, which pro- 
jected in various points and capes, but remained still 
fixed, and he found himself pushed by it southward 
to the latitude of 76o. We soon find him still farthei 
west, on what he thought should have been the south- 
ern part of Hudson's Greenland ; and sea-fowls in vast 
flocks seemed to indicate land, but the fog lay so 
thick, ''* that he might easier hear land than see 
it." However, about lat. 71 i°, the air cleared, and 
he descried a snowy hill very high amid the clouds ; 
and the fog lying on each side, made it appear like 
a gTeat continent. It proved, however, to be only 
an island, probably Jan Mayen ; and as the shores 
presented nothing but drift-wood, and appeared 
as if fortified with castles and bulwarks of rock, 
no shelter was aflbrded from a heavy gale which 
Degan to blow. This induced him to stand out 
a^ain to sea. He regained the northern point of 



142 EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 

Spitzbergen, and began to beat for a Polar pas- 
sage. The wind, however, blew so strong from 
the north-north-east, that he gave up the attempt, 
only resolving, on his way home, to take a sur- 
vey of Hudson's Hold-with-Hope. He came to 
the place where it ought to have been, but find- 
ing no land, he insisted that Hudson must have 
been mistaken in the position assigned to it, — a sus- 
picion which has been recently confirmed by Mr. 
Scoresby. Availing himself then of a brisk north- 
erly breeze, he sailed for England. 

Fotherby, on being asked as to the prospects of a 
passage through these seas, replied, that though he 
had not attained in this respect his desire, nothing 
yet appeared to exclude hope. There was a spacious 
sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen, though 
much pestered with ice ; and he would not dissuade 
the worshipful Company from a yearly adventure of 
£150, or £200 at the most; and the little pinnace, 
with ten men, in which he had sailed two thousand 
leagues, appeared to him more convenient for that 
purpose than any of larger dimensions. A very long 
period, however, elapsed before any attempt of thii 
nature was resumed. 




EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 143 



CHAPTER VI. 

Early Voyages in Search of a North-West Passage. 

Notwithstanding the early, repeated, and vigorous 
efforts to discover a passage by the east and north- 
east, the west was the quarter which finally drew 
forth the grandest series of naval enterprise, and flat- 
tered the nation longest with the hope of this signal 
discovery. The maritime world were yet very little 
aware of the immense breadth of America at its 
northern limit. That continent was long imagined 
to terminate i*n a cape, after rounding which, and 
passing through the strait of Anian, — an imaginary 
channel, supposed by the early geographers to sepa- 
rate America from Asia,— an entrance would be 
opened at once into the Pacific, and the navigator 
might proceed full sail to Japan, China, the Spice 
Islands, and all the regions abounding in Indian 
wealth. 

Portugal, first of the European nations, had em- 
barked in the career of ocean-discovery. Her mo- 
narchs and princes devoted their most anxious study 
and all the resources of their kingdom to double the 
southern point of Africa, and thereby to overcome 
the obstacles opposed by that continent to a direct 
commerce with India. Their efforts were crowned 
by the discovery of the passage by the Cape, through 
which the trade and treasures of the Eastern World 
became theirs. This would have been the most 
brilliant maritime enterprise ever performed, had it 
not been rivalled by the contemporaneous discovery 
of America. Enough might seem to have been done 
both for the benefit and the glory of Portugal, with- 



144 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES^. 

out directing the national resources into any other 
channel. Yet one of the most illustrious houses of 
that kingdom, with much enthusiasm and no small 
loss, devoted itself to western navigation. This 
house was that of Cortereal ^ for a member of whichy 
John Vaz Cortereal, claims are advanced as having 
discovered Newfoundland, nearly a century before 
the celebrated voyages of Columbus or Cabot. In 
1500, his son, Caspar Cortereal, immediately upon 
the discovery of the Western World, resolved to fol- 
low in the steps of Columbus. Having obtained from 
the king two vessels, he touched at Terceiray one of 
the Azores, proceeded northward, whence he endea- 
voured to find his way to India by some of the higher 
latitudes. Respecting the details of this voyage 
there remain only detached shreds, which Mr. Barrow 
has collected with equal learning and diligence. His 
first attempt appears to have been made by the broad 
opening of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which he pro- 
bably ascended, till, by the narrowing channel and 
the descending current, it was ascertained to termi- 
iiate in a river, and to aiford no hope of a passage 
round America. He then steered northwards,^ and 
passed along a coast which Europeans have since com- 
monly called Labrador, but which in the early maps 
bears from him the name of Corterealis, In some of 
the relations, this coast is called Terra Verde (Green- 
land), but it has nothing in common with the coun- 
try to which Europeans have almost as improperly 
affixed that name. The territory is represented as 
amply stocked with timber, — a description which 
applies to the spacious forests of fir and pine that 
clothe the region immediately north of Canada. The 
natives are correctly described as of small stature, — 
a simple and laborious race ; — and no less than fifty- 
seven being allured or carried on board, were con- 
veyed to Portugal. After a run along this coast, es- 
timated at eight hundred miles, Cortereal came to a 
fegion which appeared to some as lying almost be- 



EARLY NORTH-WEST l^OYAGES. 145 

neath the Pole, and similar to that formerly reached 
by Nicolo and Antonio Zeno. Ramusio more expli- 
citly states the highest latitude attained as only 
60°, which would place the vessels about the en- 
trances into Hudson's Bay. But the season must 
now have been far advanced ; and the approach of 
the Polar winter, the floating mountains of ice, the 
thick snows which filled the air, — all the gloomy 
characteristics of an Arctic winter, — must, to a crew 
accustomed only to navigate the warm and temperate 
seas, have appeared peculiarly terrible. It was 
judged absolutely necessary to return to Portugal. 
That this necessity, however, was considered to arise 
from the season only, and that no general panic was 
struck into the mind of this intrepid navigator, was 
sufficiently testified by his appearing on the sea next 
season with two vessels, which he guided directly to 
the most northerly point of the former voyage. Here 
he is described as entering a strait, Hudson's per- 
haps, or more probably Frobisher's ; but at this cri- 
tical point of the voyage the vessels were separated 
by a tempest, and probably by the floating ices with 
which these straits are infested. One of them suc- 
ceeded in extricating itself, and searched for some 
time in vain for its lost consort ; but that which had 
on board the gallant leader of the expedition returned 
no more, and no trace could ever be obtained of 
its fate. 

When these gloomy tidings were conveyed to Por- 
tugal, Miguel Cortereal, a younger brother, animated 
with the most tender affection to Caspar, and with a 
congenial spirit of enterprise, determined to depart 
in search of him. Early next spring, having equipped 
three vessels, he sailed on the 10th May, 1502, from 
the port of Lisbon. On arriving at the numerous 
openings into Hudson's Bay, the captains adopted 
the plan of separating, and each exploring a particu- 
lar inlet. This, however, in some respects promising, 
was an imprudent step ; for nothing could have more 
N 



146 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

conduced to mutual safety than to have kept close 
together, and aided each other in those dreadful exi- 
gencies to which this navigation is liable. It proved 
a fatal measure ; two of the vessels indeed met and 
returned ; but Miguel and his crew shared the fate 
of those whom they had gone to seek, — they returned 
not ; and it was never known where or how they 
perished. The survivors reported at Lisbon this 
heavy aggravation of the former distress. Fraternal 
affection and daring courage seem to have throughout 
characterized this noble race. There was still a 
third brother, Vasco Eanes, who besought of the 
king permission to search for his lost kindred even 
amid the abysses of this vast ocean ; but to this pro- 
ject a royal veto was absolutely interposed, the king 
declaring that it was too much to have lost in this 
cause two of his best and most faithful servants. 
After a commencement so gloomy, and such gallant 
efforts made in vain, it does not appear that the pro- 
ject of a northern passage was ever revived in Por- 
tugal. 

Spain, which had made the discovery of America, 
and. from that success derived so much glory and 
wealth, might have been expected to take a peculiar 
interest in every thing connected with its farther ex- 
ploration. The fact however appears to be, that, re- 
velling among the rich plains and glittering treasures 
of Mexico and Peru, she felt little attraction towards 
the bleak confines of the northern Pole. Only one 
very early voyage is mentioned, that, namely, which 
was undertaken, in 1524, by Gomez, with a view of 
discovering a shorter passage to the Moluccas. He 
is said to Irave brought home a few of the natives ; 
but no record is preserved either of the events which 
attended his enterprise or even of the coast on which 
he arrived. There remains of it, as has been ob- 
served, only a jest, and one so indifferent as not to 
be worth repeating. The chief exertions of Spain 
for a passage were made from Mexico along the 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 14 ^ 

north-west coast of America ; but these we do not 
propose to include in the present narrative. 

Britain now took up this train of discovery, and 
made it almost exclusively her own. Her efforts in- 
deed were long in vain : the barriers of nature were 
too mighty, and America, stretching her boundaries 
into regions that lie beneath the perpetual sway of 
the northern tempest, afforded only a precarious and 
doubtful navigation. England, however, has since 
earned high glory in this career ; she has formed in 
it some of her greatest naval commanders, has opened 
new channels for fishery, fixed the limits of the 
western continent, and explored the wide seas and 
large islands which range along its northern boundary. 

The few attempts at northern discovery made m 
the reign of Henry VIII. were all in this direction. 
In 1527, that prince was so far wrought upon by the 
representations of Mr. Robert Thorne of Bristol, as 
to fit out two handsome vessels, having on board 
" divers cunning men," for the purpose of seeking 
and describing strange regions. The chroniclers 
however. Hall and Grafton, who narrate this under- 
taking, have not vouchsafed any report upon the re- 
sult, — a negligence deeply deplored by Hakluyt, who, 
by the most anxious inquiry, could only learn from 
Sir Martin Frobisher and Mr. Richard Allen, that one 
of the ships was called Dominus Vob^'scum, and 
that one of the cunning men was a canon of St. 
Paul's. His name is unknown ; but he was a great 
mathematician, and wealthy, and shared the voyage 
in person. Hakluyt was also informed, that the ex- 
pedition had steered first to the north of Newfound- 
land, where one of the vessels, adventuring into a 
deep and dangerous gulf, was cast away ; the other 
then moved southward, and having made observations 
on Cape Breton and other coasts, returned to Eng- 
land in October. 

This undertaking was followed, nine years there- 
after, by another, set on foot by Mr. Hore of London, 



14& EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

a wealthy and enterprising individual, who easily in- 
duced thirty young gentlemen of family and fortune, 
some of whom were from the Inns of Court, to em- 
bark along with him. Hakluyt had here equally to 
lament the absence of written records ; but he found 
out Mr. Oliver Dawbeny, who sailed in one of the 
vessels ; and having learned that a son of Sir Wil- 
liam Buts of Norfolk had been of the party, and was 
still alive, he rode two hundred miles for the purpose 
of conversing with that gentleman. From these 
sources he collected, that this gay band of volunteers, 
mustered in military array at Grave send, and having 
taken the sacrament, went on board. They had a 
long and tedious voyage, during which their buoyant 
spirits considerably flagged. At the end of two 
months they reached Cape Breton, then held as 
part of the West Indies. Thence, in fulfilment of 
their views, they endeavoured to shape a more 
northerly course. They reached Penguin Island, the 
same probably since called Birds' Island, abounding 
so remarkably in fowls as large as a goose, and even 
in bears, which made such tolerable food, that all 
their wants were supplied. Having proceeded to 
Newfoundland, Dawbeny one day called on his com- 
rades to come and view a boat with the " natural 
people of the country," whom they had earnestly de- 
sired to see. A barge was fitted out to treat with 
them ; but the savages, alarmed, fled precipitately, 
relinquishing the side of a bear which they had been 
roasting; and all attempts to overtake them were 
fruitless. This coast appears to have been singularly 
barren and desolate. Food, it was said, could be pro- 
cured only by purloining from the nest of an osprey 
the fish collected for her young. It seems strange 
that they should have remained on such a shore ; but 
famine soon rose to such a pitch as to drive them to 
a most frightful extremity. Several of them waylaid 
a companion, killed him, and deposited his flesh in a 
secret place, to which they repaired, and having 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 149 

oasted it in successive portions, eagerly fed upon it 
An accident betrayed this dreadful secret. One of 
the company, walking with another, stnelt the savour 
of broiled meat, and reproached his comrade with 
keeping a private hoard, while others were in such 
fearful want. They came to high words, when the 
guilty person said, " Well if you will have it, it is a 

piece of 's flesh." This being reported with 

horror to the captain, he called together his crew, 
and solemnly representing to them the dreadful guilt 
they had incurred, obtained a promise to desist. The 
famine, however, becoming always more cruel, they 
were at length driven to a systematic mode of carry- 
ing on the same horrible course, and had arranged 
the casting of lots to decide whose life should be 
sacrificed to save the rest, when a French ship ap- 
peared in view. Finding it to be both in good order 
and well stored with provisions, the English scrupled 
not to attack and seize it, recommending the ejected 
crew to the ill-provided bark which they themselves 
had left. They made their way in all haste home, 
which they reached in the most squalid and miserable 
state. So changed was young Buts, that neither Sir 
William nor his mother could recognise him, till he 
displayed a secret mark which proved him to be their 
son. Meantime the Frenchmen arrived in their own 
country, and raised loud complaints against the cruel 
and unwarrantable manner in which the English had 
treated them. Henry, unable to deny the extreme 
hardship of their case, yet moved with pity towards 
his own subjects, whom he was unwilling to punish, 
liberally paid from his private purse the full extent 
of the loss. 

From so slight a narrative, it were rash to form 
any very positive conclusion; yet we cannot help 
observing, that there is little appearance of the ad- 
venturers having gone out duly prepared for theii 
>aard and ard\}ous undertaking, and little display o \ 
N2 



ji50 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

nautical skill, prudence, or good conduct, in the whole 
of the expedition. 

After so disastrous a trial, the spirit of western 
discovery slumbered. The great zeal kindled in the 
succeeding reign of Edward VI. turned wholly to 
the eastward, producing the voyages of Sir Hugh 
Willoughby and others, which have been recorded in 
a former chapter. It was otherwise with the spirit 
of enterprise which revived under Queen Elizabeth. 
That princess, however, though abundantly inclined 
to favour whatever might contribute to the glory 
and interests of her kingdom, did not originate or 
prompt any of these schemes. Sir Humphrey Gil- 
bert and Mr. Richard Willis wrote treatises, where 
learned observations were combined with fanciful 
reasonings and erroneous reports, but all calculated 
to influence the public mind in support of such 
undertakings. The first voyage was planned and 
conducted by Martin Frobisher, an officer who after- 
ward distinguished himself by naval exploits in 
every quarter of the globe, but who earned his early 
fame by contending with the snows and tempests of 
tlie northern deep. Frobisher, regarding the western 
passage as the only great thing still left undone 
in the world, solicited for fifteen years, in city and 
court, the means of equipping a small flotilla capable 
of accomplishing this important object. The mer- 
cantile bodies manifested a coldness very unlike the 
zeal displayed on former occasions ; but some lead- 
ing men at court were at last more propitious, and 
through the favour of the Earl of Warwick, Fro- 
bisher was enabled, in the year 1576, to equip three 
vessels, respectively of 35, 30, and 10 tons. These 
little barks, or rather boats, seemed ill fitted for 
ploughing the Arctic deep; yet Mr. Scoresby has 
observed, that such vessels are better calculated for 
threading their way through channels obstructed 
oy ice, and even for withstanding somewhat rude 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 151 

Bhocks from it, than larger and more unwieldy 
fabrics. 

Frobisher, on the 8th June, dropped down from 
Deptford to Greenwich, where the court then resided, 
and, in passing by the palace, fired a round in his 
best style. The queen looked from the windows, 
cheering and waving her hand, and Secretary Wal- 
singham came on board the vessels, wished them 
success, and exhorted the crews to good order and 
obedience. On the 12th the expedition passed Til- 
bury Hope, and having on the 19th reached Yar- 
mouth, stood thence out to sea. On the 26th Fro- 
bisher saw before him Swinborne (Sumburgh) Head, 
the bold southern promontory of Shetland, while he 
had Fair Isle to the north-west. In the ocean-navi- 
gation which followed, he has only recorded his dis- 
tances, latitudes, and directions. On the 11th July 
he saw a range of awful and precipitous summits, 
which, even in the height of summer, were all white 
with snow. He concluded this coast to be the Fries- 
land of Zeno, but in fact it was the southern point 
of Greenland near Cape Farewell. A boat put out 
towards the coast, but found it so barred with ice 
and obscured by fog, that it was impossible to land. 
The navigators now steered westward, suffering se- 
verely from northerly gales. On the 14th the wind 
shattered their foreyard, and bore the mizenmast 
overboard; and on the 16th the topmast with its sail 
broke off, and fell into the sea. They continued to 
press on ; and upon the 22d a thick mist dispersing, 
showed a long range of coast, judged to be Labra- 
dor. Ice, however, formed an impassable barriei 
between them and the land, while the line went down 
100 fathoms without touching ground. The current 
was very strong, but, from the impossibility of com- 
ing to anchor, could not be measured ; yet it seemed 
not less than a league and a half an hour. On the 
1st August the discoverers approached to make ob- 
servations on a large island of ice, which, as they 



152 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

were viewing it, went to pieces, and fell into the sea 
with a tremendous crash. 

On the 18th they reached a more accessible coast 
and became desirous to ascertain if it was inhabited. 
Seeing seven boats plying along the beach, they sent 
out one of their own, the crew of which, by holding 
up a white cloth, induced a native canoe to approach; 
but, on seeing the ship, the people immediately turned 
back. Frobisher then went on shore, and, by the 
distribution of several little presents, enticed one of 
them to come on board. This person, being well 
treated with meat and drink, made on his return so 
favourable a report, that nineteen followed his ex- 
ample. The sailors had then a full opportunity of 
observing this Esquimaux race. They are described 
as " like to Tartars, with long black hair, broad faces, 
and flat noses, having boats of seal-skin, with a keel 
of woocj within the skin." Next day they appeared 
more shy, and with some difficulty one of them, by 
the allurement of a bell, was drawn on board. Fro- 
bisher, havmg no intention to detain him, sent a boat 
with five men to put him on shore at the angle of a 
rock ; but these, urged by curiosity and blinded by 
false confidence, went on to join the main body of 
the natives — a fatal step ; they were never allowed 
to return. Frobisher spent two days firing guns, 
and making inquiries at every point, but without 
success. 

On the 26th August, without any very particular 
reason assigned, our navigator weighed for home; 
when passing by Greenland and Iceland, and coming 
in view of Orkney, the Texel, and Yarmouth, he 
reached Harwich in the beginning of October. 

Frobisher had made little progress towards a west- 
ern passage ; yet, having with such slender means 
penetrated thus far, and discovered a new country, 
dignified with the title of Meta Incognita, his voyage 
was considered highly creditable, and as affording 
good promise for the future. The public interest 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 153 

was excited by another circumstance of a very illu 
sory nature. AH his friends importuned him to gi\e 
them something or other which had come from Meta 
Incognita. At a loss to satisfy this avidity, he cast 
his eyes on a large stone which, from its glittering 
appearance, he had been induced to take on board. 
He broke it into pieces, and distributed them among 
the circle of his acquaintances. One portion was 
received by a lady, who happened to drop it into the 
fire, where, after burning for some time, it appeared 
to glitter like gold. Being thereupon carried before 
the goldsmiths, they were so ignorant, or so misled 
by the enthusiasm of the age, as to pronounce it a 
valuable ore of the most precious of metals. This 
false decision threw all England into a ferment of 
joy. There was no difficulty now in equipping an 
expedition. The queen contributed the ship Ayde 
of 180 tons, besides means for enabling Frobisher 
to fit out two other vessels, the Michael and Ga 
briel, of 30 tons each. Being invited to visit the 
queen at Lord Warwick's seat in Essex, he re- 
ceived her majesty's hand to kiss, with many gracious 
expressions. 

Frobisher sailed on the 26th May, 1577, with such 
a " merrie wind," that on the 8th June he touched 
at the Orkneys for fresh water, allowing his gentle- 
men and soldiers to go on shore for recreation. The 
poor inhabitants, having, it is probable, suffered from 
the inroads of pirates, fled from their houses with 
cries and shrieks, but were soon, by courteous treat- 
ment, induced to return. Their accommodations 
were found truly miserable; they had no vent for 
smoke, but a fire in the middle of the house, on one 
side of which dwelt the family, and on the other the 
cattle, — oatcakes and ewe-milk their only food. The 
English now entered on their perilous voyage through 
the northern ocean, during which they were much 
cheered with the perpetual light, which allowed 
them at all hours to read or otherwise amuse them- 



154 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

selves ; which is observed to be peculiarly cheering 
to such as " wander in unknown seas and long navi- 
gations, where both the winds and raging surges do 
pass their common course." They were surprised 
to see large fir-trees, torn up by the roots, floating in 
the midst of the ocean. On the 4th of July Friesland 
presented its awful front, consisting of a range of 
inaccessible mountains entirely covered with snow, 
unless where, from the extreme steepness of the 
cliffs, it had broken off and fallen into the sea. 
DuHng four days' sail, they saw, whenever the thick 
fogs for a moment dispersed, a similarly dreary coast, 
without any landing-place, and without a sign of 
human habitation or even of life ; yet little birds, ap- 
parently bewildered amid the mist, came and alighted 
on board, and gave the impression that there might 
be a milder region in the interior. But the inexpe- 
rienced part of the crew were especially struck by 
the islands of ice, rising thirty or forty fathoms above 
the water, and rooted at the bottom of seas which 
the line could not fathom. 

Frobisher now sailed across to Labrador, and 
touched at the sound which received his name. The 
coast, however, was found guarded by a mighty wall 
of ice, which the ships could not penetrate ; but the 
captain, with two of his boats, worked his way into 
the strait, and began to survey the country and people. 
So crude were then the ideas respecting the geogra- 
phy of these regions, that they imagined the coast 
on their left to be America, and that on their right 
Asia. Landing on the American side they scrambled 
to the top of a hill, and erected a column, which, 
after the great patron of the expedition, was called 
Mount Warwick. On their return, cries were heard 
like the lowing of bulls, and a large body of natives 
ran up to them in a very gay and cordial manner. 
They began an eager traffic for the trifling ornaments 
displayed by their visiters, yet declined every invita- 
tion to go on board, while the English on their part 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 155 

did not choose to accede to their overtures of going 
into the country. Frobisher and a companion, meet- 
ing two of the natives apart, rashly seized and began 
dragging them to the boats, hoping there to gain their 
friendship by presents and courtesy. On the slippery 
ground, however, their feet gave way, the Esqui- 
maux broke loose, and found behind a rock their 
bows and arrows, which the}^ began to discharge 
with great fury. Frobisher and his comrade, seized 
with a panic scarcely justified by two such miserable 
assailants, fled full speed, and the captain reached 
the boat with an arrow sticking in his leg. The 
crew, imagining that something truly serious must 
have driven back their commander in such discom- 
fiture, gave the alarm, and ran to the rescue. The 
two barbarians instantly fled ; but Nicholas Conger, 
a stout fellow, servant to Lord Warwick, seized one 
of them and dragged him into the boat. 

Meantime the ships outside were involved in a 
dreadful tempest, being tossed amid those tremen- 
dous ice-islands, the least of which would have been 
sufficient to have crushed them into a thousand pieces. 
To avoid dangers which so closely beset them, they 
were obliged to tack fourteen times in four hours ; 
but with the benefit of the perpetual light, the skill 
of their steersman, and the aid of Providence, they 
weathered the tempest, without the necessity of 
driving out to sea and abandoning the boats. On 
the 19th, Frobisher came out with a large store of 
glittering stone ; upon which, says Dionise Little, 
" we were all rapt with joy, forgetting both where 
we were and what we had suffered. Behold," says 
he, " the glory of man, — to-night looking for death, 
to-morrow devising how to satisfy his greedy appe- 
tite with gold." 

A north-west gale now sprang up ; before which, 
like magic, the mighty barriers of ice by which the 
ships had been shut out melted away. They had 
now a broad and open passage Ijy which they entered 



156 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

the Sound, which, in the conception of the English^ 
was a strait leading into the Pacific Ocean. In a 
run of upwards of thirty leagues they landed at differ- 
ent points, and, mounting to the tops of hills, took 
possession of the country, with solemn and sacred 
ceremonies, in name of her majesty. Having found 
in one place a bridle of singular construction, they 
examined their captive upon it, who thereupon seized 
a dog, attached the bridle, yoked the animal in a 
sledge, and exhibited the Esquimaux mode of driving. 
This person admitted knowledge respecting the five 
men captured in the preceding year, but repelled 
most strenuously the signs by which the English in- 
timated their belief that they had been killed and 
eaten. However, a dark source of suspicion was 
soon opened; for some boats of the natives were 
found, which, along with bones of dogs, flesh of un- 
known animals, and other strange things, contained 
an English canvass doublet, a shirt, a girdle, three 
shoes for contrary feet, — apparel which, beyond all 
doubt, belonged to their countrymen lost in the pre- 
ceding year. Anxiously hoping to recover them, they 
left a letter in the boat, and pen, ink, and paper, with 
which to return an answer. Still more vigorous mea- 
sures were determined upon to recover or avenge 
them. A party of forty, under Charles Jackman, 
marched inland to take the natives in the rear, and 
drive them upon the coast, where Frobisher with his 
boats waited to intercept them. The wretches had 
removed their tents into the interior; but the invaders, 
after marching over several mountains, descried an- 
other cluster of huts, supposed at first to belong to a 
different party ; but the agitation and alarm visible 
the Instant they were observed, showed that this was 
the guilty band. The Esquimaux, hastening to their 
canoes, pushed out full speed to sea ; and they rowed 
with a rapidity which would have baffled all pursuit, 
had not Frobisher with his boats held the entrance 
of the Sound and there awaited them. As soon as 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 157 

tliey saw themselves thus beset, they landed among 
the rocks, abandoning their skiffs, which they hoped 
to render useless by breaking the oars. ITie English 
rushed on with alacrity to the assault ; but the na- 
tives, stationed on the rocks, resisted the landing, 
and stood their ground with the most savage and 
desperate valour. Overwhelmed with clouds of 
arrows, they picked them up, plucking them even 
out of their bodies, and returned them with fury. 
On feeling themselves mortally wounded, they 
plunged from the rocks into the sea, lest they should 
fall into the hands of the conquerors. At length, 
completely worsted, and having lost five or six of 
their number, they sprang up among the cliffs and 
eluded pursuit. There fell into the hands of the 
assailants only two females, who caused some specu- 
lation. One was stricken in years, and presented a 
visage so singularly hideous as suggested to many no 
less a suspicion than that the great enemy of man- 
kind stood before them in person. This impression 
gaining ground, it was resolved to apply a test then 
considered infallible. Her buskins were plucked off, 
to ascertain if she presented that peculiar stucture 
of the lower extremities supposed to characterize 
the dread foe of the human race. As this essential 
character was found wanting, it was merely deter- 
mined, by liberating her, to deliver their eyes from 
80 distressing a spectacle. The other female was 
young, with a child in her arms; and being, from 
her peculiar costume, mistaken for a man, had been 
fired at and the child wounded. It was in vain to 
apply remedies ; she licked off with her tongue the 
dressings and salves, and cured it in her own way. 
She and the male captive formerly taken looked 
strange at first, but, on becoming intimate, found much 
comfort in each other's society, and showed a strong 
mutual attachment. 

Frobisher still cherished hopes of recovering his 
men. A large party appearing on the top of a hill, 
O 



158 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

signs were made of a desire for mutual accommoda- 
tion. A few of them advanced, and were introduced 
to the captives. The parties were deeply affected, 
and spent some time without uttering a word ; tears 
then flowed ; and when they at last found speech, it 
was in tones of tenderness and regret, which pre- 
possessed the English much in their favour. Fro- 
bisher now came forward, and propounded, that on 
condition of restoring his five men, they should re- 
ceive back their own captives, with the addition of 
sundry of those little gifts and presents on which they 
set the highest value. This they promised, and also 
to convey a letter to the prisoners. Doubtless by 
this time the captives lived no longer, and the natives 
had no means of amicably redeeming their pledge ; 
but they determined, by force or stratagem, to effect 
their purpose. Three men appeared holding up flags 
of bladder, inviting the invaders to approach ; but the 
latter, who saw the heads of others peeping from 
behind the rocks, resolved to proceed with the utmost 
caution. The natives began by placing in view large 
pieces of excellent meat ; and when their enemy could 
not be caught by that bait, a man advanced very close, 
feigning lameness, and seeming to offer himself an 
easy prey. Frobisher allowed a shot to be fired, by 
which the person was cured at once, and took to his 
heels. Seeing all their artifices fail, the barbarians 
determined upon main force, and pouring down to 
the number of a hundred, discharged tlieir arrows 
with the utmost fury. They even followed a con- 
siderable way along the coast, regardless of the 
English shot ; but the vessels meanwhile were too 
distant from the shore to suffer the slightest annoy- 
ance. Several of the seamen importuned Frobisher 
to allow tl\em to land and attack ; but this he refused, 
as only calculated to divert them from the main 
object, and to cause useless bloodshed. 

The 21st of August had now arrived, the ice was 
beginning to form around the ships, and, though little 



EAULY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 159 

progress had been made towards China, the seamen 
had put on board two hundred tons of the precious 
ore. They therefore mounted the highest hill, fired 
a volley in honour of the Countess of- Warwick, and 
made their way home. 

Notwithstanding the vicissitudes which had marked 
this voyage, its arrival was hailed with the utmost 
exultation. Enthusiasm and hope, both with the 
queen and the nation, rose higher than ever. The 
delusion of the golden ore continued in full force, and 
caused those desolate shores to be regarded as 
another Peru. Special commissioners, men of judg- 
ment, art, and skill, were named by her majesty to 
ascertain both the quality of the ore and the pros- 
pects of the voyage to India. After due inquiry, a 
most favourable report was made on both subjects, 
and it was recommended not only that a new expe- 
dition on a great scale should be fitted out, but a 
colony established on that remote coast, who might 
at once be placed in full possession of its treasures, 
and be on the watch for every opportunity of farther 
discovery. To brave the winter of the Polar world 
was a novel and daring enterprise ; yet such was then 
the national spirit, that the appointed number of a 
hundred was quickly filled up. There were forty 
mariners, thirty miners, and thirty soldiers, in which 
last number were oddly included, not only gentlemen, 
but gold-finers, bakers, and carpenters. Materials 
were sent on board the vessels, which, on being put 
together, might be converted into a fort or house. 
The squadron fitted out was the largest that had yet 
adventured to plough the northern deep. It consisted 
of fifteen vessels, furnished by various ports, espe- 
cially by those of the west, and the rendezvous took 
place at Harwich on the 27th May, 1578, whence they 
sailed on the 31st. The captains waited on the 
queen at Greenwich, and were personally addressed 
by her in the most gracious manner ; Frobisher re- 
ceiving a chain of gold, and the honour of kissing 
her maj ssty's hand 



160 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

Occasion was formerly taken to observe, that ex- 
peditions got up on the greatest scale, and with the 
most ample means, usually proved the most unfortu- 
nate. A large and encumbered fleet was ill calculated 
to steer through the ice-entangled straits, and amid 
the mighty mountains which were floating over the 
northern deep. On reaching the Queen's Foreland, 
at the opening of Frobisher's Strait, the navigators 
found it frozen over from side to side, and barred, as 
it were, with successive walls, mountains, and bul- 
warks. A strong easterly wind had driven numerous 
icebergs upon the coast, and hence the navigation 
amid these huge moving bodies soon became most 
perilous. The Dennis, a large vessel, on board of 
which was part of the projected house, received such 
a tremendous blow from a mountain of ice, that it 
went down instantly, though the other ships, hastening 
to its aid, succeeded in saving the men. This specta- 
cle struck panic into the other crews, who felt that 
the same fate might next moment be their own. The 
danger was much augmented when the gale increased 
to a tempest, and the icy masses, tossing in every 
direction, struck furiously against the sides of the 
vessels. Invention was now variously at work to 
fmd means of safety. Some moored themselves to 
these floating islands, and being carried about along 
with them, escaped the outrageous blows which they 
must otherwise have encountered. Others held sus- 
pended by the sides of the ship oars, planks, pikes, 
poles, every thing by which the violence of the shocks 
might be broken ; yet the ice, " aided by the surging 
of the sea and billow," was seen to break in pieces 
nlanks three inches thick. Frobisher considers it as 
redounding highly to the glory of his poor miners 
and landsmen, wholly unused to such a scene, that 
they faced with heroism the assembled dangers that 
oe sieged them round. " At length, it pleased God 
with his eyes of mercy to look down from heaven," 
— a brisk south-west wind dispersed the ice, and 
gave them an open sea through which to navigate. 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 161 

After a few days spent in repairing the vessels, and 
Slopping up the leaks, Frobisher bent afresh all his 
efforts to penetrate inward to the spot where he was 
to found his colony. After considerable effort, he 
made his way into the strait, when he discovered that 
he was sailing between two coasts; but amid the 
gloomy mists, and the thick snow which fell in this 
northern midsummer, nothing could be distinctly 
seen. As, however, clear intervals occasionally oc- 
curred, affording partial glimpses of the land, the 
surmise arose, that this was not the shore along 
which they had formerly sailed. Frobisher would 
not listen to a suggestion which would have con- 
victed him of having thrown away much of his time 
and labour. He still pressed onward. Once the 
mariners imagined they saw Mount Warwick, but 
were soon undeceived. At length, Christopher Hall, 
chief pilot, stood up and declared, in hearing of all 
the crew, that he never saw this coast before. Fro- 
bisher still persevered, sailing along a country more 
populous, more verdant, and better stocked with birds, 
than the one formerly visited. In fact, this was pro- 
bably the main entrance into Hudson's Bay, by con- 
tinuing in which he would have made the most impor- 
tant discoveries. But all his ideas of mineral wealth 
and successful passage were associated with the old 
strait ; and, on being obliged to own that this was a 
different one, he turned back to the open sea. In this 
retreat the fleet was so involved in fogs and violent 
currents, and so beset with rocks and islands, that 
the sailors considered it onlyby a special interposition 
of Providence that they were brought out in safety. 
When they had reached the open sea, and arrived at 
the mouth of the desired strait, it was almost as 
difficult to find an entrance. However, Frobisher 
was constantly on the watch, and wherever there 
appeared any opening, it is said " he got in at one 
gap and out at another," till at length he reached his 
purposed haven in the depths of the north. Before 
02 



162 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

however, the crews were "completely landed and es- 
tablished, the 9th of August had come, thick snows 
were falling, and it behooved them to hold a solemn 
consultation as to the prospects of the projected 
colony. There remained of the house only the ma- 
terials of the south and east sides ; the rest had either 
gone down in the Dennis, or had been shattered into 
fragments while suspended from the sides of the 
ships to meet the strokes of the ice. Great part of 
the bread had been spoiled, and the liquors had sus- 
tained a woful leakage ; in short there was no ade- 
quate provision for a hundred men during a whole 
year. Captain Fenton of the Judith indeed suggested, 
that what remained of the house might be formed 
into a hut for sixty men, with whom he undertook to 
brave the northern winter ; but the carpenters, being 
consulted, declared that such a structure could not 
be erected in less than two months, while their 
utmost possible stay would be twenty-six days. 
Renouncing the idea of settlement, Frobisher still 
asked his captains whether they might not, during 
the short remaining interval, attempt some discovery 
to throw a redeeming lustre on this luckless voyage ; 
but, in reply, they urged the advanced season, the 
symptoms of winter already approaching, and the 
danger of being enclosed in these narrow inlets, 
where they would be in the most imminent danger 
of perishing ; — in short, that nothing was now to be 
thought of but a speedy return homeward. This 
was effected, not without the dispersion of the fleet, 
and considerable damage to some of the vessels. 

These voyages contain notices of the country and 
people, which strikingly agree with those collected 
by recent navigators. This Meta Incognita, which 
Bcludes only the countries bordering upon the en- 
trances of Hudson's Bay, is considered as a cluster 
of large islands lying thick together, and separated 
6y narrow inlets, — an idea, perhaps, not so unfounded 
as was for some time supposed. These provinces 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 163 

consist of mountains and high lands covered with 
snow, even in the midst of summer ; and it appeared 
very surprising to find in latitude 60° and 61° a cold 
mucii more intense than at the North Cape and Ward- 
huys in latitude 72°. The people are described as 
of ripe-olive complexion, with long black hair, broad 
^aces, and flat noses, much resembling Tartars, or, 
more strictly, Samoiedes, to whom, according to the 
best information Frobisher could obtain, they were 
also similar in their habits of life. The land could 
scarcely yield either grain or fruit, and the people 
made no attempt to cultivate them, eating merely 
shrubs and grass, " even as our kine do ;" or, as 
Settle expresses it, " such grass as the country pro- 
duceth they pluck up and eat, not daintily or sallad- 
wise, but like brute beasts devouring the same," In 
other respects, he observes, they seek "by their 
hunting, fishing, and fowling, to satisfy their greedy 
paunches, which is their only glory." They use 
neither seat, table, nor cloth ; but " when they are 
imbrued with blood, knuckle deep, they use their 
tongues as apt instruments to lick them clean." 
From the manner in which, to the great disgust of 
the beholders, they devoured their meat in the most 
loathsome and putrid state, without any cookery 
or preparation, an inference is somewhat rashly 
drawn, that they would not make the least hesita- 
tion in partaking of human flesh. Frobisher could 
observe only their summer-houses, which are de- 
scribed as poor caves, like ovens, having holes like 
a fox or coney burrow, formed of pieces of whalebone 
meeting at top, and covered with seal-skin, and in 
the inside of which, by strewing moss, they formed 
nests to sleep on. At the same time they were founa 
to be sharp-witted, and showed, by signs, great readi- 
ness both to understand and reply to the English. 
If they could give no information on any subject, 
they shut their eyes ; if they did not comprehend 
what was said to them, they stopped their ears. They 



164 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 



took the greatest delight in music ; repeating and 
keeping time to any tune with voice, head, hand, and 
foot. Their darts, arrows, and other weapons were 
skilfully contrived, and used with a courage amount- 
ing even to desperation, of which repeated instances 
have been given. Their little boats of skin (kayak) 




were moved by one oar, with a swiftness which no 
English sailor could match. Their astonishment 
at European objects appeared particularly when 
one of them was shown his visage in a mirror. 
" He was upon the sudden much amazed thereat, 
and, beholding advisedly the same with silence a good 
while, at length began to question with him as with 
his companion ; and finding him dumb, seemed to 
suspect him as one disdainful, and would have grown 
into choler ; until at last, by feeling and handling, he 
found the deceit, and then, with great noise and cries, 
ceased not wondering, thinking that we could make 
men live and die at our pleasure." There were 
great signs of mutual attachment, especially between 
the male and female captive, who were brought home 
on the second voyage. She killed and dressed the 
dogs for him, and tended him carefully when sick, 
while he picked out the sweetest and fattest morsels 
and laid them before her; yet they lived entirely as 
brother and sister without the slightest impropriety. 
Our naval recoids do not inform us of the feelings 
excited in the nation by the return from this hard, 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 165 

peixious, and abortive voyage. The failure of suC' 
cessive attempts, and especially of one got up with 
so much cost and circumstance, probably produced 
its usual effect of lassitude and despondence. The 
glittering stone, which was to have converted this 
northern Meta into another Peru, was never more 
heard of; a few careful assays having doubtless 
established its utter insignificance. Frobisher re- 
commended strongly the trial of the first mistaken 
inlet which he had entered, as being, in comparison 
of the other, broader, more patent, and every way 
more promising ; but the people could by no means 
be roused to any farther efforts. He was obliged to 
seek in other climates employment for his daring 
and active spirit. He accompanied Sir Francis 
Drake to the West Indies ; he commanded one of 
the largest ships in the armament which opposed the 
Spanish armada, and fought with such bravery, that 
he was decorated with the honours of knighthood. 
Being afterward sent to assist Henry IV. against 
the League, and employed in the attack of a small 
fort on the coast of France, he received a wound 
from a ball, which, through unskilful treatment, 
proved fatal in November, 1594. 

Seven years after Frobisher's last voyage, the spirit 
of the nation was again roused. Divers opulent mer- 
chants of London and of the west determined to " cast 
in their adventure ;" and, leaving wholly out of view 
the delusive hopes of gold which had misled Frobisher, 
directed theirs entirely to the discovery of a passage 
to India. They fitted out two vessels, the Sunshine 
and Moonshine, of 50 and 35 tons respectively, which 
were placed under the command of John Davis, a 
steady and determined seaman, endowed also with a 
large portion of courtesy and good-humour, by which 
he was likely to render himself acceptable to the 
rude natives of those inhospitable shores: to pro- 
mote which laudable purpose, he was provided not 
only with a supply of the trifling gifts suited to their 



166 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGEg. 

taste, but with a band of music to cheer and recreate 
their spirits. This being- a western navigation, Da- 
vis, on the 7th June, 1585, set sail from Dartmouth. 
On the 19th July, as the seamen approached the 
Arctic boundary, they heard, amid a calm sea beset 
with thick mist, a mighty roaring, as of the waves 
dashing on a rocky shore. The soundings gave 300 
fathoms; however, the captain and master pushed 
off in the boat to examine this supposed beach, but 
were much surprised to find themselves involved 
amid numerous icebergs, while all this noise had 
been caused by the rolling and beating of these masses 
against each other. Davis landed on some of these 
islands, and broke off pieces of ice, which, being 
carried to the ship, were converted into good water. 
Next day he came in view of the south-western 
coast of Greenland, which appeared the most dreary 
and desolate ever seen ; " deformed, rocky, and 
mountainous, like a sugar-loaf, standing to our sight 
above the clouds. It towered above the fog like a 
white list in the sky, the tops altogether covered 
with snow, the shore beset with ice, making such 
irksome noise that it was called the Land of Desola- 
tion,'''* The water on this coast was black and thick, 
like a standing pool, and though they saw many 
seals floating, and birds beating upon the water, 
none could be caught. 

After sailing for several days along this dreary 
shore, without being able to approach on account of 
the ice, Davis pushed out north-westward into the 
open sea, hoping in " God's mercy to find our de- 
sired passage." On the 29ih he came in view of a 
land in 64° north latitude, which was still only Green- 
land ; but as the wind was unfavourable for proceed- 
ing westward, the air temperate, and the coast free 
from ice, he resolved to go on shore and take a view 
of the country and people. In the company of two 
others, he landed on an island, leaving directions fDr 
the rest to follow as soon as they should hear any 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 167 

loud signal. The party mounted the top of a rock, 
whence they were espied by the natives, who raised 
a lamentable noise, with loud outcries like the howl- 
ing of wolves. Davis and his comrades hereupon 
struck up a high note, so modulated, that it might at 
once be alluring to the natives, and might summon 
his own crew to deeds either of courtesy or valour. 
Burton, the master, and others, hastened, well armed, 
yet with the band of music playing, and dancing to 
it with the most inviting signs of friendship. In ac- 
cordance with this gay summons, ten canoes hastened 
from the other islands, and the people crowded round 
the strangers, uttering in a hollow voice unintelligi- 
ble sounds. The English continued their friendly 
salutations, while the other party still showed jea- 
lousy, till at length one of them began pointing to- 
wards the sun and beating his breast. These signs 
being returned by John Ellis, master of the Moon- 
shine, the natives were induced to approach; and 
being presented with caps, stockings, gloves, and 
whatever the navigators had, and continuing to be 
hailed with music and dancing, their fears gave place 
to the most cordial amity. Next day there appeared 
thirty-seven canoes ; the people from which kindly in- 
vited the English on shore, showing eager impatience 
at their delay. Davis manned his boats and went to 
them ; one of them shook hands with him, and kissed his 
hand, and the two parties became extremely familiar. 
The natives parted with every thing, the clothes from 
off their backs, consisting of seal-skins and birds' 
skins with the feathers on them, their buskins of 
well-dressed leather, their darts, oars, and five canoes, 
accepting cheerfully in return whatever their new 
visiters chose to present ; and they kindly aided each 
other under the privations thus occasioned. They 
offered to return next day with an ample store of 
furs and skins, which they saw the foreigners value 
so highly; but a favourable breeze springing up, 
Davis very properly determined to allow nothing to 



168 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

interfere with his schemes of discovery. He steered 
directly across the strait, or rather sea, which still 
bears his own name. On the 6th August he disco- 
vered high land, which he named Mount Raleigh, 
"being part of Cumberland Island. Here, anchoring 
in a fine road, the seamen saw three white animals, 
which seemed to be goats. Desirous of fresh vic- 
tuals and sport, they pursued them, but discoA^ered 
instead three monstrous white bears. The animals 
rushed on, fearless and furious, till being received 
with several balls, they retreated, apparently not 
much hurt, but were followed and at last killed. 
There appeared no symptoms of their having fed on 
any thing except grass; but it was necessary to clear 
away a very large quantity of fat before the flesh 
could be eaten. i 

Davis, after coasting about for some days, again 
found himself at the cape which he had at first 
reached on his crossing from the opposite shore of 
Greenland. This promontory, which he called God's 
Mercy, he now turned, when he found himself in a 
sound stretching north-westward, twenty or thirty 
leagues broad, free from ice, and its waters having 
the colour and quality of the main ocean. After 
ascending it sixty leagues, he found an island in 
the mid-channel, which still, however, afforded 
an open passage, so that his hopes daily increased. 
About the end of August, however, being involved 
in fogs and contrary winds, he determined to sus- 
pend operations for this season and return to Eng- 
land. 

On one of the islands in this sound the seamen 
heard dogs howling, and saw twenty approach, of 
wolf-like appearance, but in most peaceful guise* 
Impressed, however, with the idea that only animals 
of prey could be found on these shores, they fired 
and killed two, round one of whose necks they found 
a collar, and soon after discovered the sledge to which 
he had been yoked. Davis saw on this voyage abun- 



EARLY NORTH-Vi:ST VOYAGES. 169 

dance of the black and glittering stone of Frobisher, 
and many of the rocks appeared " orient like gold ;" 
but little attention was now excited by these delusive 
appearances. 

Although nothing was actually done by this expe- 
dition, yet the ultimate views which it had opened 
to Davis inspired sanguine hopes, and facilitated the 
equipment of a fresh expedition. To the slender ar- 
mament of the Sunshine and Moonshine was now 
added the Mermaid of 120 tons, with a boat or pin- 
nace. Davis sailed from Dartmouth on the 7th May, 
and on the 15th June came in view of the southern 
extremity of Greenland; but, owing to severe 
storms, it was the 29th before he reached the land 
formerly visited in lat. 64<*. As the English ap- 
proached, the natives came out in their canoes at first 
with shouts and cries ; but, recognising their com- 
panions of the former year, they hastened forward, 
and hung round the vessel with every expression of 
joy and welcome. Davis, seeing them in such fa- 
vourable dispositions, went ashore and distributed in 
presents twenty knives, refusing the offer of skins in 
return. The most intimate acquaintance was now 
begun ; yet they never met the strangers anew with- 
out crying, ^'Eiaoutr beating their breasts and lifting 
their hands to the sun, by which a fresh treaty was 
ratified. The two parties amused themselves by 
contests in bodily exercises. The Esquimaux could 
not match their opponents in leaping ; but in wres- 
tling they showed themselves strong and skilful, and 
threw some of the best English wrestlers. By de- 
grees they began to manifest less laudable qualities. 
They exercised many and solemn incantations, 
though, Davis thanks God, without any effect. They 
kindled a fire by rubbing two sticks against each 
other, and invited him to pass through it ; but he, 
in contempt of their sorcery, caused the fire to be 
trodden out, and the embers thrown into the sea. 
The natives showed soon a much more inconvenient 
P 



170 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

propensity to appropriate every article, especially- 
iron, which came under their notice. Perhaps it was 
imprudent ever to have made presents, thus sug- 
gesting the idea, which does not seem to have be- 
fore entered their minds, that any thing could be 
obtained without an equivalent. However, they 
soon reached the highest pitch of audacity; they 
stole a spear, a gun, a sword, cut the cables, and 
even the Moonshine's boat from her stern. The 
leading personages of the crew remonstrated with 
Davis, that for their security he must " dissolve this 
new friendship, and leave the company of those 
thievish miscreants." Davis fired two pieces over 
their heads, which " did sore amaze them," and they 
fled precipitately. But in ten hours they again ap- 
peared with many promises and presents of skins ; 
when, on seeing iron, " they could in nowise forbear 
stealing." The commander was again besieged with 
the complaints of his crew ; however, " it only mi- 
nistered to him an occasion of laughter," and he bid 
his men look vigilantly to the safety of their own 
goods, and not deal hardly with the natives, who 
could scarcely be expected in so short a time " to 
know their evils." 

Davis now undertook an expedition to observe 
somewhat of the interior. He sailed up what ap- 
peared a broad river, but which proved only a strait 
or creek. A violent gust of wind having obliged him 
to seek the shelter of land, he attempted to ascend 
a very lofty peak ; but " the mountains were so 
many and so mighty, that his purpose prevailed not." 
While the men were gathering muscles for supper, 
he was amused by viewing for the first time in his 
life, a water-spout, which he describes as a mighty 
whirlwind taking up the water and whirling it round 
for three hours without intermission. Next day he 
re-embarked, and penetrated higher up the channel 
but was surprised to find, instead of the huge un 
broken continent which he had supposed, only Waste 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 171 

and desert isles, with mighty sounds and inlets 
passing between sea and sea. 

During the captain's absence matters had become 
worse with the Esquimaux. The mariners on his re- 
turn opened a fearful budget ; the natives had stolen 
an anchor, cut the cable, and even thrown stones 
of half a pound weight against the Moonshine ; and 
he was asked if he would still endure these injuries. 
Davis, who probably suspected that the sailors' 
own dealings had not been very gentle, bid them 
nave patience, and all should be well. He invited an 
Esquimaux party on board, made them various little 
presents, taught them to run to the topmast, and 
dismissed them apparently quite pleased. Yet no 
sooner had the sun set than they began to " practise 
their devilish nature," and threw stones into the 
Moonshine, one of which knocked down the boat- 
swain. The captain's meek spirit was at length kin- 
dled to wrath, and he gave full warrant for two boats 
to chase the culprits ; but they rowed so swiftly that 
the pursuers returned with small content." Two 
days after, five natives presented themselves with 
overtures for a fresh truce ; but the master came to 
Davis, remonstrating that one of them was " the chief 
ringleader, a master of mischief," and was vehement 
not to let him go. He was made captive, and, a fair 
wind suddenly springing up, the English set sail, and 
carried him away, many doleful signs being then ex- 
changed between him and one of his countrymen ; 
however, on being well treated, and presented with 
a new suit of frieze, his spirits revived, he became a 
pleasant companion, and used occasionally to assist 
the sailors. 

Davis, finding the wind favourable, pushed across 
the bay, in hopes of attaining the object of his voyage. 
On the 17th July the mariners descried a land diver- 
sified with hills, bays, and capes, and extending far- 
ther than the eye could reach ; but what was their 
horror on approaching, to find that it was only " a 



172 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

most mighty and strange quantity of ice !" Tt was, 
in fact> that great barrier, which often, for a great 
part of the season, fills the middle of Baffin's Bay. 
As they coasted along this mighty field, a fag came 
on, by which the ropes, shrouds, and sails were all 
fast frozen,— a phenomena which, on the 24th July, 
appeared more than strange. Dismayed by these ob- 
servations, the seamen considered the passage hope- 
less, and, in a respectful yet firm tone, warned Davis, 
that by "his over-boldness he might cause their 
widows and fatherless children to give him bitter 
curses." Davis was willing to consider their case ; 
yet, anxious not to abandon so great an enterprise, 
he determined to leave behind him the Mermaid, as 
a vessel less convenient and nimble, and to push on 
in the Moonshine with the boldest part of his crew. 
Having found a favourable breeze, he at last, on the 
1st August, turned the ice, and in lat. 66^^ 33' reached 
land ; along which he now coasted southward for 
about ten degrees, entangled among a number of 
islands, and missing, in his progress, the different 
inlets which afforded an entrance into Hudson's Bay. 
The shores were crowded with incredible flocks of 
gulls and seamews, and the water so abounded in fish, 
that, though their tackle was very indifferent, in the 
running of an hour-glass the crew caught a hundred 
cod. On reaching Labrador, the coast was seen 
covered with ample forests of fir, pine, yew, and 
birch ; but five men who landed were beset by tho 
natives, and two of them killed and two wounded. 
Davis, being also exposed to a violent tempest, and 
seeing September arrive, judged it wisest to return to 
England. 

The public were considerably damped by the issue 
of this expedition, so that Davis found no small dif- 
ficulty in obtaining the means for equipping another. 
He was obliged to hold out the inducement, that, by 
proper arrangements, the outlay might be defrayed 
by fishing and no additional expense incurred on 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 173 

account of discovery. By these arguments, and by 
the exertions of his zealous friend, Mr. Sanderson, he 
succeeded in fitting out the Sunshine, the Elizabeth, 
and a pinnace. This last, to which he mainly trusted 
for discovery, answered very ill the character which 
had been given of it, and was found to move through 
the water like a cart drawn by oxen. On the 16th 
June (1587), the adventurers arrived at their old 
coast, and were received by the natives as before with 
the cry of iliaout and the exhibition of skins. These 
savages, however, lost no time in the renewal of their 
former system of thieving; for which great opportu- 
nities were afforded during the putting together of a 
boat with materials brought from England. They 
carried off the planks, and when fired at placed them 
before their bodies as shields, thus securing both their 
planks and persons. It was now arranged that the 
two large vessels should remain to fish, while Davis 
in the pinnace should stretch out into a higher la- 
titude with a view to discovery. In pursuance 
of this plan he took his departure, and, continuing 
to range the coast to the northward, on the 28th he 
reached a point which he named Sanderson's Hope, 
in upwards of 72 degrees, still finding a wide open 
sea to the west and north. Here, the wind having 
shifted, Davis resolved to hold on a western tack 
across this sea, and proceeded for forty leagues with- 
out sight of land or any other obstruction, when he 
was arrested by the usual barrier of an immense 
bank of ice. He first endeavoured to round it by 
the north, but, seeing no passage on that side, turned 
to the south, beating about for several days without 
success. Tempted by an apparent opening, he in- 
volved himself in a bay of ice, from which he was 
not extricated without much difficulty and some 
danger. He was obliged to wait the moment when 
the sea beating and the sun shining on this mighty 
mass should effect its dissolution. At length, on the 
i9th July, he came in view of Mount Raleigh, and 
P2 



174 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 



at midnight found himself at the mouth of the in- 
let discovered in the first voyage, and which has 
since been called Cumberland Strait. Next day he 
sailed across its entrance, and in the two following 
days ascended its northern shore, till he was again 
involved among numerous islands. He seems now 
to have concluded this strait to be an enclosed gulf, 
and shaped his course to reach the sea ; but being 
becalmed in the bottom of the bay, he could not till 
the 29th, by coasting along the southern shore, effect 
his retreat. Frobisher's Strait was now passed, seem- 
ingly without being recognised as such, but was 
called Lumley's Inlet. He next crossed the mouth 
of an extensive gulf, in one part of which his vessel 
was carried along by a violent current, while in an- 
other the water was whirling and roaring as is usual at 
the meeting of tides. This recess, being terminated 
by Cape Chidley, was evidently the grand entrance 
afterward penetrated by Hudson. Davis, however, 
who had only half a hogshead of water left, hastened 
to the point of rendezvous fixed with the two other 
vessels; but, to his deep disappointment and just 
indignation, he found that they had departed. It 
was not without hesitation that, with the slender 
store remaining in his little bark, he ventured to 
sail for England ; but having scarcely any alterna- 
tive, he undertook the voyage, and happily accom- 
phshed it. 

Davis wrote still to Mr. Sanderson in sanguine 
and almost exulting terms. He had reached a much 
higher latitude than any former navigator, and, with 
the exception of the barrier of ice on one side, had 
found the sea open, blue, of vast extent, and un- 
fathomable depth. He considered, therefore, that 
the success of a spirited attempt was almost infal- 
lible. But the interest taken by the nation in such 
enterprises seems only capable of being sustained foi 
a certain period. Three failures had exhausted that 
interest, and made men indisposed to listen or in- 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 175 

quire farther into the subject. It became the cry, as 
he informs us, — " This Davis hath been three times 
employed; why hath he not found the passage?" 
The death of Secretary Walsingham occurring at 
this period was a severe blow to the cause, while 
the invasion by the Spanish Armada soon followed, 
and engrossed for a space all the thoughts and ener- 
gies of the nation. Mr. Sanderson still continued 
the steady friend of Davis; but, unable to obtain 
resources for anew armament, he could only employ 
Molyneux, the best artist of his time, to construct 
a globe which comprised all that navigator's disco- 
veries, and is still preserved in the library of the 
Middle Temple. 

In 1602 the spirit of the nation revived. To the 
Muscovy Company, which had taken the great lead 
in all the early schemes of discovery, was now added 
the Levant Company ; and these two great bodies, 
finding the course to India by the Cape still beset 
with many dangers, determined upon a joint effort 
to penetrate thither by the north-west. They sent 
out Captain George Weymouth with two vessels, the 
Discovery and Godspeed, which they called fly- 
boats, though they were respectively of 70 and 60 
tons. He left London on the 2d May, and on the 
18th June came in view of the coast of Greenland, 
which appeared to him " a main bank of ice." The 
water was in many places as thick as puddle, mak- 
ing him imagine himself among shallows, till the 
sounding-line gave 120 fathoms without any ground. 
This, formerly observed by Davis, was probably the 
green cloudy sea of Scoresby, thickened by the in- 
fusion of numberless animalcules. 

Weymouth, having made sail westward with a 
favourable breeze, came, on the 28th, in sight of the 
coast of America. There appeared a promontory 
covered with snow, which he concluded to be War- 
wick's Foreland ; but the vessels were tossed to and 
fro by violent currents, or overfalls, as he calls them, 



' 76 EARLY NORTH-'WEST VOYAGES. 

and involved in fogs so thick, that they were once 
quite close to a bank of ice before it was perceived. 
However, being in want of water, the party landed, 
loaded their boat with ice, and found it to make very 
palatable drink. The crews heard a great sound like 
the dashing of waves on the shore ; on making up 
to which they were dismayed to find it " the noise 
of a great quantity of ice, which was very loath- 
some to be heard." The mist became so thick, that 
they could not see two ships' length, and determined 
to take down the sails ; but were petrified to find 
them so fast frozen to the rigging, that in " this 
chiefest time of summer they could not be moved." 
Next day they renewed the attempt; but it was 
only by cutting away the ice from the ropes that 
they could be made to move through the blocks. 
The following day the fog lay so thick, and froze 
so fast, that ropes, sails, and rigging remained im- 
moveable. 

These phenomena produced a disastrous effect on 
the minds of the sailors, who began to hold secret 
conferences, ending in a conspiracy " to bear up the 
helm for England." It was proposed to seize Wey- 
mouth, and confine him in his cabin till he gave his 
consent ; but the captain, receiving notice of this ne- 
farious design, called the seamen before him, and in 
presence of Mr. Cartwright the preacher, and Mr. 
Cobreththe master, called upon them to answer for 
thus attempting to overthrow a voyage fitted out at 
such ample cost by the honourable merchants. The 
men stood firm, producing a paper signed by their 
own hands, in which they justified the proposed step 
as founded on solid reason, without any tincture 
of fear or cowardice. They represented, that if they 
should suffer themselves to be enclosed in an un- 
known sea, by this dreadful and premature winter, 
they would not only be in imminent danger of perish- 
ing, but could not hope to commence their career of 
discovery next year sooner than May; while by 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 177 

setting sail indue time from England they might easily 
reach this coast in that month. Weymouth retired 
to his cabin to deliberate, when he heard it an- 
nounced that the helm was actually borne up. Hast- 
ening on deck, and asking who had done this, he 
was answered, "One and all!" and he found the 
combination such as it was impossible to resist, 
though he took occasion afterward to chastise the 
ringleaders. The men, however, declared them- 
selves ready to hazard their lives in any discovery 
which might be attempted to the southward. 

Accordingly, on descending to 61° N. lat., Wey- 
mouth found himself at the entrance of an inlet, into 
which he sailed in a south-west direction, a hundred 
leagues by reckoning; but encountering fogs and 
heavy gales, and finding the season far spent, he 
deemed it necessary to regain the open sea. This 
inlet, however, was thought to present more favour- 
able hopes of a passage than any other that had yet 
been discovered. It appears in fact to have been the 
grand entrance of Hudson's Bay ; so that Fox justly 
ascribes some merit to Weymouth in directing that 
great navigator into this spacious expanse. As his 
course, however, of west by south, must have led 
him off the main channel of this large strait, and 
thrown him on the western shore of what is now 
called Ungava Bay, his estimated reckoning of a 
hundred leagues is evidently overrated. In 55^ he 
found a fair land, consisting of islands and " goodly 
sounds," apparently the place where the Moravian 
settlement of Nain was afterward formed. Soon 
after, a dreadful hurricane from the west seemed to 
take up the sea into the air, and drove the ships be- 
fore it with the utmost impetuosity. Had it been 
from any other quarter they must have been dashed 
to pieces on rocks ; however they ranged through the 
open sea, and in the greatest extremity " the Lord 
delivered us his unworthy servants." He had now 
an easy navigation to England. 



178 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

No farther proceedings occurred till 1606, when 
the Muscovy and East India merchants fitted out a 
vessel of forty tons under John Knight, who had 
Deen employed in the Danish voyages to Greenland, 
and was considered a stout and enterprising sailor. 
He sailed from Gravesend on the 18th April, but was 
detai led a fortnight in the Pentland Frith; however, 
" two lustie fellows, well acquainted Avith these north 
parts of Scotland," took him into a good harbour 
called St. Margaret's Hope, v/here he remained till 
the 12th May. He directed his course almost due 
west, towards America, and had reached the latitude 
of 58°, when winds and currents bore him to the 
southward. On the 19th of June he was in 56^ 48', 
when he saw the continent rising like eight islands. 
The vessel, however, had been so distressed with 
tempest and heavy fogs, and so bruised between 
mighty islands of ice, that it was necessary to put it 
into a little cove to refit. Here the wind blew with 
such violence, bringing great islands of ice against 
the vessel, that the rudder was torn from the stern ; 
and hence it became necessary to haul it on shore at 
the bottom of the cove, that it might undergo a tho- 
rough repair. 

On the 26th, Knight, with some of his men well 
armed, went across in the boat to the opposite coast, 
in search of a better harbour, and to take a survey 
of the country. With this view, the captain, his 
mate, and another went over a hill, leaving three 
men in charge of the boat. These last waited the 
whole day in anxious expectation of the return of 
the party; they then sounded trumpets, fired muskets, 
and made every imaginable signal, but without effect. 
After waiting till eleven at night, they gave up hopes, 
and returned to the ship with these black and doleful 
tidings. The crew were struck with the deepest 
dismay at having thus lost their captain and best 
officers, and being themselves left in such deplorable 
circumstances. The boat was fitted out next morn- 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 179 

mg for search, but could not cross the channel on 
account of the ice. After twQ distressful days, oa 
the night of Saturday, the 28th of June, as the boat- 
swain was keeping watch in advance of the tents, he 
suddenly saw rushing through the darkness a great 
body of men, who, on descrying him, let fly their ar- 
rows. He instantly fired, and gave the alarm ; but, 
before the crew could start from bed and be mus- 
tered, the shallop was filled with fifty savages, who, 
with loud cries and menacing gestures, showed them- 
selves prepared for immediate attack. The English 
mustered only eight men and a large dog, and though 
the rain fell in torrents, they determined rather to 
perish bravely, assailing this savage enemy, than to 
wait their onset. They advanced, therefore, placing 
the dog foremost. This bold front appalled the sa- 
vages, who leaped into their boats, and made off with 
all speed ; but they were entangled in the ice, and 
detained a considerable time, during which the pur- 
suers continued firing, and the savages were heard 
" crying to each other very sore." They are repre- 
sented, so far as could be judged, as very small peo- 
ple, tawny-coloured, with thin or no beards, flat- 
nosed, and man-eaters ; but this last particular was 
doubtless hypothetical. 

The mariners, placed in this alarming situation, 
made all the haste they could to fit their shattered 
bark for again taking the sea. They had first to cut 
a way for her through the ice ; but they had nothing 
which could be called a rudder, and the leaks were 
so large, that the sailors could scarcely enjoy half 
an hour's relief from the pump. At length they 
found means to stop up tolerably the principle fissure, 
and, after hard rowing and pumping for three weeks, 
succeeded in reaching the coast of Newfoundland. 
Among the fishing vessels on that station, they found 
most kind and loving friends, who supplied all their 
wants ; and after twenty days spent in repairing their 
ship, and refreshing their bodies, tlie crew enjoyed a 



180 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

good passage to Dartmouth, whence they transmitted 
to London an account of the doleful issue of their 
voyage. 

It was Hudson that now stood foremost in the 
career of northern discovery, and earned a fame 
which has placed him among the greatest of British 
navigators. We have traced his career in former 
chapters — first in the daring attempt to cross the 
Pole itself; then in his second voyage fc^r the north- 
east passage ; and also in his third excursion, which 
ended in the discovery of the river now associated 
with his name. But the most eventful of his voy 
ages, and that marked by the grandest result, was 
the one which closed his labours, undertaken with a 
view to a western passage. The narrative of the 
commander himself is only a meager journal, brought 
down to a particular point of the voyage ; but a full 
relation is given by a certain personage, naming 
himself Abacuk Pricket, against whose testimony, 
however, for reasons that will appear in due time, 
there rest some heavy objections. This expedition 
was fitted out by Sir John Wolstenholme, Sir Dudley 
Digges, and other persons of distinction, who did 
not, however, project it on a very magnificent scale. 
It consisted only of one vessel of 55 tons, provisioned 
for six months, which left the Thames on the 17th 
April, 1610. Hudson touched at the north of Scot- 
land, the Orkney and the Faroe Islands, all which 
he judged to lie not in so high a latitude as the maps 
represented. On the 11th May he descried the east- 
ern part of Iceland, and was enveloped in a thick 
south fog ; hearing the sea dashing against the coast 
without seeing it. He was thus obliged to come ta 
anchor ; but, as soon as the weather cleared, he pro 
ceeded westward along the coast till he reached 
Snow Hill (Snaefell), which rears its awful head 
above the sea that leads to the frozen shores of 
Greenland. On their way the navigators saw Hecla, 
the volcano of which was then in activity, vomiting 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES, 181 




torrents of fire down its snowy sides, with smoke 
ascending to the sky ; an object not only fearful in 
itself, but which struck them with alarm, as an indi- 
cation of unfavourable weather. 

Leaving the Icelandic coast they now sailed west- 
ward, and, after being deceived by illusory appear- 
ances of land, at length saw the white cliffs of 
Greenland towering behind a mighty wall of ice. 
Without attempting to approach the coast, Hudson 
sailed towards the south-west, and passed what he 
imagined to be Frobisher's Straits, which in fact long 
continued to be laid down on the coast of Green- 
land, though with manifest error, since they evidently 
belong to that of America. Hudson now turned 
Cape Farewell, and " raised the Desolations," making 
careful observation of those coasts, which he found 
not well laid down in the charts. The mariners 
soon began to descry, floating along, the mighty 
islands of ice, — a sight which appalled all but the 
vStoutest hearts. Onward they sailed, however, some- 
times enjoying a clear and open sea, but often en- 
compassed by these mighty masses, or by the small 
and drifting heaps ; and at length they had to steer 
Q 



182 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOVAGF.U 

as it were between two lands of ice. They some- 
times moored themselves, on occasions of peril, to 
these icebergs ; but seeing one of them dispart, and 
fall with a tremendous crash into the sea, they no 
longer trusted to such a protection. On the 25th 
June land appeared to the north, was again lost sight 
of, and afterward discovered to the south ; so that 
they found themselves at the broad entrance of th 3 
channel which has since obtained the name of Hud- 
son's Strait. They were now still more pestered 
with ice in various forms, particularly that of large 
islands standing deep in the water, which were more 
difficult to avoid from the violent ripples and currents. 
Thus they were often obliged, especially amid thick 
fogs, to fasten themselves to the largest and firmest 
of these masses, upon which they used to go out 
from time to time, collecting the water melted in the 
hollows, which proved to be sweet and good. Amid 
these vicissitudes many of the sailors fell sick ; and 
though Pricket does not choose to assert that their 
sole malady was fear, yet in many he saw small 
symptoms of any other. The crews of that period, 
indeed, display few symptoms of the patience and 
hardihood with which those of Willoughby and 
Frobisher had first braved the northern tempests. 
Hudson, seeing his men in this depressed temper, 
bethought himself of an expedient by which he 
hoped to animate them. He called them together, 
showed them his card (chart), from which it appeared 
that they had penetrated farther into the straits by a 
hundred leagues than any former expedition, and put 
it to themselves whether they would proceed, yea 
or nay. This was a bold experiment, but did not 
succeed. Some, it is true, expressed themselves 
" honestly respecting the good of the action ;" but 
others declared they would give nine-tenths of all 
they were worth, so that they were safe at home : 
others said they did not care where they went, so 
they were out of the ice. Hudson, vexed and dis- 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 183 

Eppointed, broke up the conference, and followed his 
own determination. This, we think, is evidently 
the real state of the case, though Pricket represents 
the captain himself as in a state of alarm and doubt. 
He accuses him also of having remembered too 
long some of the speeches made on this occasion, to 
the disadvantage of those by whom they had been 
uttered. 

Notwithstanding this failure, Hudson, buoyed up 
by his own courage and hardihood, seeing land alter- 
nately on one side and the other, having sometimes 
a wide and clear sea, and being sometimes involved 
amid mountains of ice, made his way onward. Cer- 
tain rocky islands in which, when severely pressed 
by the wind and floe, he found a tolerable harbour, 
were called " Isles of God's Mercy ;" but even this* 
harbour was rendered dangerous by hidden reefs; 
and the island adjoining to it contained, according 
to Pricket, only "plashes of water and riven rods," 
and had the appearance of being subject to earth- 
quake. At length, they arrived at a broad opening, 
having on each side capes, to which Hudson gave 
the names of the two chief patrons of the voyage ; 
to the one on the continent, that of Wolstenholme ; 
to the other on the large island of Mansfield, that of 
Sir Dudley Digges. Landing at the island cape, and 
mounting a hill, the men descried some level spots 
abounding in sorrel and scurvy-grass, plants most 
salutary in this climate ; while herds of deer were 
feeding, and the rocks were covered with an unex- 
ampled profusion of fowls. Seeing such ample ma- 
terials, both for sport and food, the crew, who had 
ever shown the most anxious concern for their own 
comfort, earnestly besought Hudson to allow them 
to remain and enjoy themselves for a few days on 
this agreeable spot. But that great navigator, seeing 
the season for his chief enterprise rapidly passing 
away, repelled such an overture. He had not long 
proceeded through tliis channel when the coasts on 



184 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

each side were seen to separate, and he beheld before 
him an ocean-expanse, to which the eye could dis- 
cover no termination. It seemed to him, doubtless, 
a portion of the mighty Pacific. Here, however, 
Hudson's narrative closes, without expressing* those 
feelings of pride and exultation which must have 
filled his mind at this promised fulfilment of his 
highest hopes. The relation of Pricket, on which 
we must now depend, shows too clearly that many 
of his crew would have had no sympathy with such 
elevated feelings. 

The expanse thus discovered by Hudson was the 
great inland sea, called from him Hudson's Bay; and 
it was a grand discovery, though not exactly what 
he imagined. The 3d of August was now arrived, 
a season at which the boldest of northern navigators 
had been accustomed to think of returning. Little 
inclined to such a course, he continued to sail along 
the coast on the left, which must have appeared to 
him the western boundary of America ; hoping pro- 
bably before the close of autumn to reach some cul- 
tivated and temperate shore, where he might take 
up his winter-quarters. The shores along this bay, 
however, though not in a very high latitude, are 
subject to a climate the most rigorous and inclement. 
Entangled in the gulfs and capes of an unknown 
coast, struggling with mist and storm, and ill se- 
conded by a discontented crew, he spent three 
months without reaching any comfortable haven. 
It was now the 1st November, the ice was closing in 
on all sides, and nothing remained but to meet the 
cheerless winter which had actually begun. The 
sailors were too late of attempting to erect a wooden 
house ; yet the cold, though severe, does not seem to 
have reached any perilous height. Their chief alarm 
respected provisions, of which they had brought 
only a six months' supply, and consequently had now 
only a small remnant left. Hudson took active 
measures to relievj3 this want. He carefully hus- 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 185 

banded the original stock, and propounded a reward 
to whoever should kill beast, fish, or bird ; and 
" Providence dealt mercifully," in sending such a 
supply of white partridges, that in three months they 
killed a hundred dozen. In spring these birds dis- 
appeared, but were succeeded by flocks of geese, 
swans, ducks, and teal, not denizens of the spot, but 
on their flight from south to north. When these 
were passed, the air no longer yielded a supply, but 
the sea began to open, and having on the first day 
taken five hundred fishes of tolerable size, they con- 
ceived good hopes ; but this success did not conti- 
nue. Being reduced to great extremity, they searched 
the woods for moss, which they compare, however, 
to pounded timber : they ate even frogs. The com- 
mander undertook an excursion with a view to open 
an intercourse with the natives, but they fled, setting 
fire even to the woods behind them. Parley was 
obtained with one, who was loaded with gifts, yet 
he never returned. Discontents arose as to the dis- 
tribution of the small remaining portion of bread 
and cheese, to allay which the captain made a gene- 
ral and equal partition of the whole. This was a bad 
measure among such a crew, many of whom knew 
not how **to govern their share," but greedily 
devoured it as long as it lasted. One man even ate 
the whole in a day, and brought on a dangerous sur- 
feit. Their distress, becoming thus greater than 
ever, soon brought on a most fatal crisis. 

Hudson, as may be observed, had from the first to 
struggle with an unprincipled, ill-tempered crew, 
void of any concern for the ultimate success of the 
voyage. He had probably hoped, as the season 
should advance, to push on southward, and reach 
next summer the wealthy regions which he was 
commissioned to search. The sailors, on the contrary, 
had fixed their desires on " the cape where fowls do 
breed," the only place where they expected to obtain 
both present suDDly and the means of returning to 
0,2 



18t> EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

England. Ringleaders were not wanting to head 
this growing party of malcontents. At the entrance 
of the bay the captain had displaced Ivet the mate, 
who had shown strong propensities towards return- 
ing, and appointed in his room Bylot, a man of 
merit, and who had always shown zeal in the ge- 
neral cause. He had also changed the boatswain. 
But the most deadly blow was struck by Green, 
a wretch whom, after he had been cast off by all 
his friends, Hudson, from humanity, had taken on 
board, and endeavoured to reclaim and restore to 
society. He was possessed of talents which had made 
him useful, and even a favourite with his superior; 
and among other discontents, it was reckoned one, 
that a veil was thrown over several flagrant disor- 
ders of which he had been guilty. Yet some hot 
expressions of Hudson caused, it is said, by a mis- 
understanding about the purchase of a gray coat, so 
acted on the fierce spirit of this ruffian, that, renounc- 
ing every tie of gratitude and all that is sacred among 
mankind, he became the chief in a conspiracy to seize 
the vessel and expose the commander to perish. 

After some days' consultation, the time was fixed 
for the perpetration of this horrible atrocity. On 
the 21st June, 1611, Green and Wilson the boat- 
swain came^ into Pricket the narrator's cabin, and 
announced their fatal resolution ; adding, that they 
bore him so much good-will as to wish that he should 
remain on board. Pricket avers most solemnly, 
that he exhausted every argument which might in- 
duce them to desist from their horrid purpose, be- 
seeching them not to do so foul a thing in the sight 
of God and man, and which would for ever banish 
them from their native country, their wives, and 
children. Green wildly answered, that they had 
made up their minds to go through with it or die, 
and that they would rather be hanged at home than 
starve here. An attempt was then made to nego- 
tiate a delay of three, two, or even one day, but all 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES 187 

Without effect. Ivet came next, of whom, as being 
a person of mature age, there seemed more hope; but 
he was worse than Green, declaring that he would 
justify in England the deed on which they had re- 
solved. John Thomas and Michael Perse now came 
in, proving themselves "birds of a feather," and 
Meter and Bennet having followed, an oath was 
administered to the following tenor: — "You shall 
swear truth to God, your prince, and country ; you 
shall do nothing but to the glory of God and the good 
of the action in hand, and harm to no man." Pricket 
complains of the reproach thrown upon him for hav- 
ing taken this oath, the bare terms of which are 
certainly unexceptionable ; but the dark context by 
which they were illustrated marks them as contain- 
ing an implied obligation to remain at least passive 
on this dreadful occasion. All was now ready, but 
Pricket persuaded them to delay till daylight the 
accomplishment of their crime. They agreed, but 
kept strict watch through the night, and held them- 
selves ready to act at the first appearance of dawn. 
Daybreak approaching, Hudson came out of his 
cabin, when he was instantly set upon by Thomas, 
Bennet, and Wilson, who seized him and bound his 
hands behind his back; and on his eagerly asking 
what they meant, told him he should know when 
he was in the shallop. Ivet then attacked King 
the carpenter, known as the commander's most de- 
voted adherent. That brave fellow, having a sword, 
made a formidable resistance, and would have killed 
his assailant, had not tlie latter been speedily re- 
inforced. The mutineers then offered to him the 
choice of continuing in the ship ; but he absolutely 
refused to be detained otherwise than by force, and 
immediately followed his master, whom the conspi- 
rators were already letting down the sides of the ves- 
sel into the shallop. Then, with a barbarity beyond 
all example, they called from their beds and drove 
into it, not the firm adherents of Hudson, but the 



188 EARLr NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

sick and infirm sailors who could afford no aid, and 
whose support would have been burdensome. They 
threw after them the carpenter's box, with some pow- 
der and shot. Scarcely was this transaction com- 
pleted, when they cut off the boat from the stem, 
" out with their topsail," and set off, flying as from 
an enemy. Hudson, thus abandoned, was never 
heard of more ; and this great navigator undoubted- 
ly perished on those remote and desolate shores, 
though the form or duration of the distress to which 
he fell a victim must be for ever unknown. 

The sailors, as soon as the guilty deed was ac- 
comphshed, fell upon the ship as ona captured vessel, 
breaking open every chest, and seizing on every 
remnant of food which could be discovered. Green, 
however, who now assumed the command, used some 
vigour in restoring order. He placed the cabin and 
provisions under the charge of Pricket, who was af- 
terward accused of a matter no less than treason, — 
that of secreting some cakes of bread. As soon as 
the mutineers had time to reflect, rueful musings be- 
gan to arise. Even Green admitted that England at 
tbis time was no place for them, nor could he con- 
tiive any better scheme than to keep the high sea till, 
by some means or other, they might procure a pardon 
under his Majesty's hand and seal. The vessel was 
now embayed, and detained for a fortnight amid fields 
of ice, which extended for miles around it ; and, but 
for some cockle-grass found on an island, the crew 
must have perished by famine. Considerable dis- 
putes with respect to the steerage arose between Ivet 
and Bylot, who alone had any pretensions to skill ; 
but the latter, being justly viewed with the greatest 
confidence, at length guided them to Cape Digges, 
the longed-for spot, the breeding place of fowls, 
clouds of which accordingly still continued to darken 
the air. The party immediately landed, spread them- 
selves among the rocks, and began to shoot. While 
the boat was on shore, they saw seven canoes rowing 



EARLY TfORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 189 

towards them, whereupon "they prepared them- 
selves for all assayes." However the savages came 
forward, beating their breasts, dancing and leaping, 
with every familiar and friendly sign. The utmost 
intimacy commenced, the parties went backward and 
forward, showed each other their mode of catching 
fowls, and made mutual presents and exchanges. In 
short, these appeared the most kind and simple peo- 
ple in the world, and " G od so blinded Henry Green," 
that he viewed them with implicit confidence. One 
day, amid the height of this intimacy. Pricket, sitting 
in the boat, suddenly saw a man's leg close to him. 
Raising up his head, he perceived a savage with a 
knife uplifted and ready to strike. In attempting to 
arrest the blow, his hand was cut, and he could not 
escape three wounds, one in the breast, and one in 
the right thigh ; by which time he got hold of the 
handle of the knife and wrenched it from the assassin, 
whom he then pierced with his dagger in the left 
side. At the same time a general attack was made 
on the English crew, dispersed in different quarters. 
Green and Perse came tumbling down wounded into 
the boat, which pushed off, while Moter, " seeing 
this medley," leaped into the sea, swam out, and, 
getting hold of the stern, was pulled in by Perse. 
Green now cried coragio, and he and Perse bran- 
dished their weapons with such vigour, that the 
savages ceased attempting to enter the boat; but 
they poured in clouds of arrows, one of which struck 
Green with such force that he died on the spot, and 
his body was thrown into the sea. At length the 
party reached the vessel ; but Moter and Wilson died 
that day, and Perse two days after. Thus perished 
the chief perpetrators of the late dreadful tragedy, 
visited by Providence with a fate not less terrible 
than that which they had inflicted on their illustrious 
unfortunate victim. 

The crew, thus deprived of their best hands, were 
in extreme perplexity, obliged to ply the ship to and 



1€0 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

fro across the straits, and unable, without the utmost 
fear and peril, to venture on shore ; which yet was 
absolutely necessary for obtaining provisions to carry 
them to England. They contrived, during some 
anxious and unhappy excursions, to collect three 
hundred birds, which they salted and preserved as 
the only stock whereupon to attempt the voyage. 
They suffered, during the passage, the most dreadful 
extremities of famine, allowing only half a fowl 
a-day to each man, and considering it a luxury to 
have them fried with candles, of which a weekly dis- 
tribution was made for that purpose. Ivet, now the 
Bole survivor of the ringleaders in the late dreadful 
transaction, sunk under these privations. The last 
fowl was in the steep-tub, and the men were become 
careless or desperate, when suddenly it pleased 
God to give them sight of land, which proved to be 
the north of Ireland. They complain that on going 
ashore at Berehaven, they did not meet the sympathy 
and kindness which they so much needed; however, 
by mortgaging their vessel, they obtained the means 
of proceeding to Plymouth. 

Purchas closes the narrative by saying, — " Well, 
Mr. Pricket, I am in much doubt of thy fidelity;" 
and he is not singular in this suspicion. It seems 
clear that this person did not avail himself of all the 
means by which he might have attempted to check 
the atrocious mutiny. Probably, however, had he 
been an active agent in the crime, he would have 
been betrayed by some of his accomplices ; or, if 
they had been all bound together by mutual guilt, 
they would have invented some story which would 
have palliated or concealed the offence altogether; 
whereas it is set forth by this narrative in all its 
atrocity. 

Notwithstanding the calamitous and deplorable 
issue of this voyage, the discovery thereby made of 
a great open sea in the west seemed to justify the 
piost flattering hopes of accomplishing a passage. 



EARLY NORTH-W£ST VOYAGES. 191 

To follow out this prospect, Captain, afterward Sir 
Thomas Button, was despatched next year (1612)^ 
having Bylot and Pricket as guides. Button seems 
to have been an active and resolute seaman. He 
soon made his way through the Straits, and, pushing 
directly across the great sea which opened to the 
westward, he came in view of an insular cape, which 
he called Carey's Swan's Nest, and which afterward 
proved to be the most southern point of Southamp- 
ton Island. Nothing else broke the apparent conti- 
nuity of the ocean, and he cherished sanguine hopes 
that the jfirst coast he should see would be that of 
.Japan. Suddenly the alarm of land was given, 
when there appeared before him an immense range 
of Arctic coast, stretching north and south, and bar- 
ring all farther progress. Button, deeply disap- 
pointed, gave to it the name of Hope Checked. Be- 
fore he had time to look for an opening, the gloom 
of the northern winter began to gather, and it be- 
hooved him to seek quarters for the season. These he 
found in the same creek and river, which afterward 
became the principal settlement of the Hudson's Bay 
Company. In spite of his best precautions, he lost 
several men through the severity of the cold, and 
was unable to extricate himself from the ice till the 
middle of June. He then steered northward, and 
sought an opening through the broad bay between 
the continent and Southampton Island, since called 
Roe's Welcome. Seeing this channel, however, be- 
come narrower and narrower, till it apparently closed, 
he gave up the attempt, and, after touching at several 
points of the island just named, returned to England. 
Although Button had been thus baffled by the 
unwelcome encounter of the western shore of Hud- 
son's Bay, the merchants still justly considered it 
by no means ascertained that this coast was so ex- 
tensive and continuous as to preclude all passage 
into the ocean beyond America ; they lost not a sea- 
son, therefore, in fitting out (1G14) two vessels under 



192 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

Captain Gibbons, an officer of reputation, pronounced 
})y Button "not short of any man that ever yet he 
carried to sea." But either his reputation went be- 
yond his merits, or fortune was singularly adverse, 
for never was there a more abortive voyage. He was 
early entangled in a bay on the coast of Labrador, in 
which he was detained the whole summer, and which 
was afterward dignified with the appellation of " Gib- 
bons his Hole." Having here sustained some damage 
from the ice, he had no sooner extricated himself than 
he returned home. 

The merchant adventurers, still undismayed, sent 
out next summer (1665) the Discovery under Bylot, 
who in all the late voyages had approved himself a 
skilful navigator, and was accompanied by Baffin, 
whose name was now established as the most skilful 
steersman and best nautical observer of the age. 
After passing Cape Farewell, they saw some most 
tremendous islands of ice, one of which rose 240 
feet above water, and, according to the usual esti- 
mate, which makes this visible part only a seventh 
of the whole, had probably an entire height of 1680 
feet. They entered the Straits, and having, on the 
2d June, heard from the northern shore a tremen- 
dous barking of dogs, landed and found five tents 
covered with seal-skin, among which were running 
about thirty-five or forty of these animals, of a 
brinded black colour, resembling wolves. They had 
collars and harness suitable for certain sledges, lined 
with fish-bone, which were standing by. In one of 
the houses was a bag with little images of men, the 
only notice we find of any such fabrication upon this 
coast. The navigators soon descried a canoe with 
twenty individuals, whom they hailed with Greenland 
words of courteous import, holding up knives and 
other toys. Friendly salutations were given in return ; 
but neither party chose to trust themselves within 
reach of the other. At a little distance, the conflict 
of opposite currents amid large icebergs caused so 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 193 

fearful a grindinsr, that they gave to the adjoining 
land the name of Mill Island. There they would 
have been in extreme danger " had not God, who is 
stronger than ice or stream," delivered them. 

The policy of Bylot in this voyage seems to have 
been to keep close to the northern shore of the strait ; 
and thus, entering Hudson's Bay at a higher latitude, 
he hoped to keep clear of those lands which had 
barred the westerly career of his predecessors. On 
reaching, therefore, Hudson's Isles of God's Mercy, 
instead of steering southward to Cape Dudley Digges, 
he proceeded directly west, and arrived in the broad 
expanse, afterward called the Fox Channel. At 
length, indeed, he saw land, but it was bounded by 
a cape which had every appearance of being the 
most northerly point of America. He called it Cape 
Comfort ; though this name it soon appeared, was 
premature, for a single day had not elapsed, when 
" his sudden comfort was as soon quailed." They 
were now on the eastern coast of Southampton 
Island, which spread on every side its almost mea- 
sureless extent, seeming to preclude every prospect 
of an opening on either hand. Disappointment, the 
lateness of the season, and the pressure of the ice, 
concurred in persuading Bylot that there was nothing 
to be hoped for here, and determined him to set sail 
immediately for England ; whither he carried a most 
unfavourable report as to any prospect of penetrating 
westward in that direction. 

But the adventurers were not discouraged by this 
unfavourable result. Turning their hopes to a differ- 
ent quarter, next year (1616) they again fitted out 
Bylot and Baffin with instructions no longer to at- 
tempt the passage by Hudson's Bay, but to enter 
the Fretum Davis (Davis's Straits), and push due 
north till they reached lat 80°, if an open sea should 
allow them to proceed so far ; then, turning to the 
westward, to round, if practicable, the extreme point 
of America, and to bear down upon Japan. Respect- 
R 



194 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

ing this voyage^ which, perhaps, of all those to the 
north, produced the most memorable discoveries, 
Baffin has favoured us with only a very meager nar- 
ration. Following the course pointed out, he reached, 
on the 30th May, Hope Sanderson, the farthest point 
of Davis's progress* Soon afterward the expedition 
came to a number of small islands, on which they 
found only females, some of very great age. These 
at first ran and hid themselves among the rocks; 
but the sailors having reached two dames, one of 
whom was estimated at fourscore, and having pre- 
sented to them bits of iron and the usual toys, the 
latter carried a favourable report to their youthful 
country women. The whole party soon came down 
to the shore, and four even went on board the 
boat. The charms of these ladies were heightened 
or disfigured by long black streaks made in their 
youth with a sharp instrument, and lodged so deep 
that they could not now be effaced. It was observed, 
too, that the dead were buried merely by piling stones 
over them, above which the body appeared, secured, 
however, from putrefaction by the extreme cold of 
the climate. The navigators sailed onwards in lat. 
740, when they were arrested by a large body of ice, 
and obliged to turn into a neighbouring sound to 
wait its melting. Here they received repeated visits 
from about forty-two natives, the only account of 
whom is, that they brought an extraordinary quan- 
tity of the bones of sea-unicorns or narwals, great 
numbers of which were seen swimming in the water. 
Hence this was called Horn Sound. The mass of 
ice now dissolved before the powerful influence of 
the sun, and the discoverers sailed northwards among 
its fragments; but still, snow fell every day, and 
the shrouds and sails were often so hard frozen 
as to make it impossible to handle them. In 76^ 
they came to a fair cape, and then to a fair sound, 
to which they gave the respective names of Digges 
and Wolstenholme, the two main promoters of this 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 195 

undertaking, and whose zeal was already associated 
with localities in, the interior of Hudson's Straits. 
After having sustained a somewhat severe storm, 
the expedition discovered another sound, which 
would have.supplied them with a multitude of whales 
had they been duly provided with the means of cap- 
ture : this they called Whale Sound. Next, in 78°, 
appeared another inlet, the widest and greatest in all 
this sea, and which was named after Sir Thomas 
Smith, one of the main promoters of discovery. 
This opening, which Baffin seems to have examined 
very superficially, abounded almost equally in whales, 
and caused particular astonishment by the extraor- 
dinary aberration of the needle, to which nothing 
similar had been ever witnessed. Between these 
two sounds was an island which was named Hak- 
luyt, after the venerable recorder of early English 
discoveries. Proceeding now along the south-west- 
ern.boundary of this great sea, the next " fair sound" 
received the name of Alderman Jones, another patron 
of these laudable pursuits. It may be remarked, 
that Baffin notices all these inlets, of which he was 
the first discoverer, in the most cursory manner, 
without mention of any attempt to trace, in their in- 
terior depths, an opening into any sea beyond. In 
lat. 74° there appeared another broad opening, which 
was called Sir James Lancaster's Sound ; but while 
he calls it great, he seems scarcely to have noticed 
this future entrance into the Polar Sea ; on the con- 
trary, he observes, at the very same moment, that 
the hope of a passage became every day less and 
less. He sailed on ; but a barrier of ice prevented 
him from approaching the shore till he came within 
the " indraft" of Cumberland's Isles, " where hope 
of passage could be none." Finding the health of 
his crew rather declining, he sailed across to Green- 
land, where an abundance of scurvy-grass boiled in 
iDeer quickly restored them ; and " the Lord then sent 
S^ speedy and good passage homeward." 



Wd EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

On returning, he expressed the most decided con- 
viction that the great sea which he had traversed was 
a bay enclosed on all sides, and affording no opening 
into any ocean to the westward; and his judgment 
was received by the public, who named it from him 
Baffin's Bay. He forcibly, however, represented the 
great opportunities which it afforded for the whale- 
fishery, as those huge animals were seen sleeping in 
vast numbers on the surface of the water, without 
fear of the ship " or of any thing else." Davis's 
Straits, accordingly, have ever since been a favourite 
resort of the fishers, who have not, however, often 
ventured into those high latitudes, where whales are 
described by Baffin as more peculiarly abundant. 

There was now a pause in English discovery; 
every quarter had been tried, and none seemed to 
afford any farther promise. Denmark, however, 
which has always felt a natural interest in northern 
navigation, made an attempt to follow up the success 
of Hudson and Baffin. In 1619, Christian IV. sent 
out two well-appointed vessels under Jens Munk, 
who had the reputation of a good seaman^ He suc- 
ceeded in penetrating through Hudson's Straits into 
the bay, whereupon he took upon himself to change 
the whole nomenclature of that region, imposing the 
names of Christian's Straits and Christian's Sea, and 
calling the western coast New Denmark. But this 
innovation, which was contrary to every principle 
recognised in such cases, has not been confirmed by 
posterity. When September arrived, and the ice 
closed in, he thought it prudent to seek winter-quar- 
ters, and, accordingly, established himself in the 
mouth of an opening, which, it is highly probable, 
was that channel which has been since called Ches- 
terfield Inlet. The season seemed to open with the 
best promise, commodious huts were constructed, 
and there were both abundance and variety of game. 
The Danes saw some of those brilliant aerial pheno 
mena which are peculiar to those latitudes ; at on^ 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 197 

time two, and at another three suns in the sky, and the 
moon once environed by a transparent circle, within 
which was a cross cutting through its centre ; but, 
instead of amusing their minds with these beautiful 
appearances, they were depressed by viewing them 
as a mysterious presage of future evils. Frost now 
set in with all its intensity; their beer, wine, and 
other liquors were converted into ice ; the scurvy 
began its ravages, and, ignorant of the mode of 
treating it, they employed no remedy, except a large 
quantity of spirits, which has always been found to 
aggravate that frightful disorder. Unfit for the ex- 
ertion necessary to secure the game with which the 
country abounded, they soon had famine added to 
their other distresses. Their miseries seem to have 
been almost without a parallel, even in the dark an- 
nals of northern navigation. Munk himself was left 
four days in his hut without food : at length, having 
crawled out, he found that, of the original crew of 
fifty-two, no more than two survived. He and they 
were overjoyed to meet, and determined to make an 
effort to preserve life. Gathering strength from de- 
spair, they dug into the snow, under which they 
found herbs and grass, which, being of an anti-scor- 
butic quality, soon produced a degree of amendment. 
Being then able to fish and shoot, they gradually re- 
gained their natural vigour. They equipped anew 
the smaller of the two vessels, in which they reached 
home, on the 25th September, 1620, after a stormy 
and perilous voyage. Munk declared his readiness 
to sail again ; and there are various reports as to the 
cause why he did not. Some say, that having, in a 
conference with the king, been stung by some ex- 
pressions which seemed to impute the disasters of 
the voyage to his mismanagement, he died of a broken 
heart. But Forster relates, that, during several suc- 
cessive years, he was employed by the king on the 
North Sea and in the Elbe, and that he died in 1628, 
when engaged in a naval expedition. 
R2 



198 EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

The English, after Baffin's expedition appeared 
to have shut out all prospect of discovery in the more 
northern seas, confined for a long time all their ef- 
forts in the direction of Hudson's Bay. As these 
did not lead to any important results, and are chiefly 
connected with the remoter settlements of America, 
we shall introduce here only a very slight sketch of 
them. 

Captains Fox and James were fitted out in 1631. 
The former examined two passages leading to the 
northward, one on the western side of Southampton 
Island, called Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome ; the 
other on the eastern side, called from himself Fox's 
Channel ; but he did not trace either to any great 
height. James, entangled in the southern extremity 
of Hudson's Bay, spent a winter under the most ex- 
treme suffering from cold, and returned next summer 
to England. 

About 1668 a settlement was formed in Hudson's 
Bay, and an extensive company established for the 
traffic in furs ; but this association, though bound by 
their charter to make the most strenuous exertions 
for the discovery of a western passage, concerned 
themselves^very little with the subject till 1719, when 
they were in a manner compelled to fit out an expe- 
dition under Knight and Barlow. These officers, 
however, never returned, and a vessel sent next year 
under Captain Scroggs could learn no tidings of them. 
Nor was it till nearly fifty years afterward that the 
wrecks of their armament were found on Marble 
Island, where they appear to have been cast ashore 
and lost. 

In 1741, after a long interval. Captain Middleton, 
supported by a gentleman of the name of Dobbs, ob- 
tained the command of two vessels, with which he 
sailed up the Welcome. He came to a long inlet 
called the Wager, but it appeared quite enclosed by 
land, with a river falling into it. Proceeding to the 
northern extremity of the Welcome, he found a 



EARLY NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 199 

Spacious opening", that afforded at first the greatest 
hopes ; but, finding it also shut in by land, he named 
it Repulse Bay. The coast then taking an easterly 
direction, he followed it till he came to a channel, 
which, from the accumulation of ice at its entrance, 
he called the Frozen Strait. A current ran through 
it, which, however, appeared to him to be merely the 
one that had entered by Hudson's Straits, and pro- 
ceeded circuitously round Southampton Island. He 
returned home, expressing a decided conviction that 
no practicable passage existed in that direction. 

Mr. Dobbs, the mover of the expedition, was 
deeply disappointed by this result; and from his 
own reflections, and the statement of several of the 
inferior officers, became convinced that Middleton 
had given a very false and imperfect statement of the 
facts. Of this he so fully convinced both the Par- 
iiment and the nation, that £lO,000 Was subscribed 
for a new expedition, and a reward of £20,000 pro- 
mised to the discoverers of the projected passage. 
Captains Moor and Smith, in 1746, commanded this 
armament, which, like many of those equipped with 
peculiar pomp and circumstance, entirely failed. 
They merely ascertained, what was pretty well 
known before, that the Wager afforded no passage ; 
and, after spending a severe winter there, returned 
jiext season to England. 

It appears, by notices which Mr. Barrow has drawn 
from the Admiralty records, that the armed brig 
Lion was sent in 1776, under Lieutenant Pickersgill, 
and in 1777, under Lieutenant Young, with the view 
of acting in concert with Captain Cook, who, in his 
third voyage, might, it was hoped, make his way 
round from Behring's Straits into the Atlantic. 
These officers reached respectively the latitudes of 
68° and 72°, without effecting or almost attemptmg 
any thing farther. 



200 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Recent Voyages for the Discovery of a Korih-west 
Passage* 

Britain had seen other nations carry off all the 
great prizes in naval discovery. She had scarcely a 
vessel on the ocean, when the nations of the Iberian 
peninsula laid open new worlds, and appropriated the 
golden treasures of the east and of the west. Her 
energies being once roused, her efforts were from the 
beginning bold and adventurous, though sometimes 
made with inadequate means, on a small scale, and 
often Avith a disastrous issue. Advancing, however, 
with regular steps, she first rivalled and finally sur- 
passed all other modern nations. The reigns of 
George III. and of his eldest son formed the era 
which decided both her maritime supremacy and her 
special eminence in the department of discovery. 
She achieved almost entirely the exploration of the 
vast expanse of the South Sea, with its great and 
numerous islands, leaving to the rival exertions of 
France only a scanty gleaning. The revolutionary 
war for some time attracted exclusively the attention 
and resources of the nation ; but as soon as a series 
of signal triumphs had left Britain without an enemy 
to contend with in the seas of Europe, she looked 
again to this theatre of her former glory. Even 
amid the din of arms, the African Association pur- 
sued their enlightened and philanthropic course ; and 
the important and brilliant issues to which it had led 
finally induced the government to take an interest in 
this undertaking, and apply to it resources which no 
private body could command. Mr. Barrow, who, by 
his personal observation, had illustrated some of the 



receKt north-west voyages. 201^ 

most important quarters both of this and of other 
continents, took the chief direction ; prompting and 
guiding" every step with an energetic perseverance 
and practical judgment which had never been ex- 
tended in an equal degree to similar objects. The 
measures undertaken with respect to Africa, with 
their varied and eventful results, do not come within 
the compass of the present work. But when the 
spirit was once roused, it did not confine itself to a 
single point. The northern seas, as a theatre of ad- 
venture, had been unoccupied for half a century 
There prevailed, indeed, a general impression, that 
so many expeditions undertaken in vain had set that 
great question at rest; but when Mr. Barrow applied 
to it the powers of his vigorous and penetrating judg- 
ment, he became sensible that this conclusion was 
quite groundless. Baffin had once sailed round that 
great sea, which by him, and from him, was called a 
bay ; but his examination had been quite superficial, 
and insufficient to establish that continuity of land 
with which the maps had so thoroughly enclosed it. 
There were even striking facts indicating that there 
was a communication with the Greenland sea on the 
one side and the Polar basin and the Pacific Ocean on 
the other. Even in regard to Hudson's Bay, no pro- 
gress had been made since Parliament had oflfered a 
reward of £20,000, and sent out the large expedition 
under the Captains Moor and Smith. Thus the grand 
question in which the country had long taken so deep 
an interest was still open ; and to decide it nothing 
more seemed necessary than that skill and undaunted 
courage, of which British seamen had shown them- 
selves so eminently possessed. 

In 1818, the Admiralty fitted out two expeditions; 
one destined for the discovery of the north-west pass- 
age, the other to attempt a voyage across the Pole. 
The first, which is the one we are at present to follow 
consisted of the Isabella of 385 tons, commanded 
by Captain John Ross, an officer of reputation and 



202 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES 

experienced who had twice wintered in the Baltic, had 
been employed in surveying the White Sea, and 
been as far north as Bear or Cherie Island. Another 
vessel, the Alexander of 252 tons, was commanded 
by Lieutenant Parry, a young officer of rising merit, 
who has since amply justified the choice which was 
made by his employers. 

On the 18th April the vessels dropped down the 
Thames, and by the end of the month were off the 
Shetland Islands. By the 27th May they came in 
view of Cape Farewell ; round which, as usual, were 
floating numerous and lofty icebergs of the most 
varied forms and tints. On the 14th June they reached 
the Whale Islands, where they were informed by the 
governor of the Danish settlement, that the past 
winter had been uncommonly severe, the neigh- 
bouring bays and straits having been all frozen two 
months earlier than usual, and that some of the 
channels northward of his station were still bound 
in with the ice. A curious statement was here made, 
that the Esquimaux, by their own account, could see 
across the whole breadth of the bay, though not less 
than two hundred miles, which would be an extra- 
ordinary instance of the power of refraction; but 
the ice, it may be observed, often presents deceptive 
appearances of land. On the 17th June, in the 
neighbourhood of Waygat Island, an impenetrable 
barrier obliged the disgoverers to stop their course, 
making themselves fast to an iceberg, and having 
forty-five whale-ships in company. Observations 
made on land proved this island to be misplaced on 
the maps by no less than five degrees of longitude. 
At length the ice attached to the eastern shore broke 
up, though still forming a continuous and impenetra- 
ble rampart at some distance to the westward, in 
which direction it had drifted ; but in the inteniiediate 
space they were enabled to move forward slowly 
along the coast, labouring through narrow and 
Intricate channels, amid mountains and loose frag'* 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 203 

tnents of ice. They steered their course, however, 
to the higher parts of the bay, and in about lat. 75^ 
came to a coast which had not been visited by former 
navigators. They were struck, as Baffin had been, 
by the great number of whales which were slum- 
bering securely in these deep recesses, never having 
been alarmed by the harpoon. On the 7th August, 
in the same latitude, a heavy gale sprung up, and 
driving the ice against the vessels, made a display 
of its terrible and dangerous power. A trial of 
strength ensued between the ice and the ships ; being 
dashed against each other with such force, that the 
anchors and cables were successively broken, and a 
boat, which could not be withdrawn from between, 
their sterns, was crushed to pieces. Providentially, 
when instant destruction was expected, the icy mass 
receded, and the ships, owing to the extraordinary 
strength of their construction, escaped without ma- 
terial injury. 

Proceeding along a high mountainous coast, the 
expedition came to a tribe of Esquimaux, who, of 
all human beings, seem to exist in a state of the 
deepest seclusion. They had never before seen men 
belonging to the civilized world, or of a race differ- 
ent from their own. The first small party whom 
the navigators approached showed every sign of the 
deepest alarm ; dreading, as was afterward under- 
stood, a fatal influence from the mere touch of these 
beings of an unknown species. Yet they seem to 
have felt a secret attraction towards the strangers, 
and advanced, holding fast the long knives lodged 
in their boots, and looking significantly at each 
other. Having come to a chasm which separated 
them from the English, they made earnest signs that 
only Saccheous the interpreter,* who bore a certain 

* This young man was a native of Greenland, who had accompanied 
the Thonrias and Ann, Captain Newton, one of the Leith whalers, ou 
her homeward voyage in 1816 ; and the following year he went out to 
the fishery, returning a second time to Europe. During this period 



204 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

resemblance to themselves, should come across. He 
went forward and offered his hand. They shrunk 
back for some time in alarm; at length the boldest 
touched it, and, finding it flesh and blood, set up a 
loud shout, which three others joined. The rest of 
the party then came up, to the number of eight, with 
50 dogs, which joined with their masters in raising a 
tremendous clamor. Ross and Parry now thought 
it time to come forward. This movement excited 
alarm, and a tendency to retreat ; but Saccheous 
having taught these officers to pull their noses, this 
sign of amity was graciously accepted. A mirror 
was now held up to them, on seeing their faces m 
which they showed the most extreme astonishment ; 
they looked round on each other a few moments in 
silence, then set up a general shout, succeeded by a 
loud laugh of delight and surprise. The ship was 
then the next object of their speculation. They be- 
gan by endeavouring to ascertain its nature by inter- 
rogating itself; for they conceived it to be a huge 
bird spreading its vast wings and endowed with 
reason. One of them, pulling his nose with the 
utmost solemnity, began an address, " Who are you ? 
Whence come you ? Is it from the sun or the moon ?" 
The ship remaining silent, they at length applied ta 
Saccheous, who assured them that it was a frame of 
timber, the work of human art. To them, however, 
who had never seen any wood but slight twigs and 
stunted heath, its immense planks and masts were 
objects of amazement. What animal, they also 

being intelligent and docile, he made no mean proficiency in a course 
of elementary study, in the prosecution of which he received every as- 
sistance from Ills friends ix\ Leilii. On tlie equipment of the Arctic 
expedition, his wishes to accompany the discovery-ships having been 
communicated to government through the medium of Captain Basil 
Hall, he was immediately engaged as interpreter. His services in that 
capacity, as the narrative shows, were of eminent utility ; and, on his 
return, the Admiralty, desirous to have him properly instructed, in the 
event of a future expedition, sent him to Edinburgh for that purpose. 
Here, however, in the ensuing spring, he was unfortunately attacked 
with an inflammatory fever, which carried liim off in a few days 



UECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 205 

asked, could furnish those enormous skins which 
were spread for the sails. Their admiration was 
soon followed by a desire to possess some of the 
objects which met their eyes, but with little cere- 
mony or discrimination as to the means of effecting 
their end. They attempted first a spare topmast, 
then an anchor ; and these proving too ponderous, 
one of them tried the smith's anvil ; but, finding it 
fixed, made off at least with the large hammer. 
Another wonder for them was to see the sailors 
mounting to the topmast ; nor was it without much 
hesitation that they ventured their own feet in the 
shrouds. A little terrier dog appeared to them a 
contemptible object, wholly unfit for drawing burdens 
or being yoked in a sledge, while the grunt of a hog 
filled them with alarm. 

This tribe, in features, form, and even language, 
belong evidently to the Esquimaux, — a race widely 
diffused over all the shores of the Arctic ocean. They, 
appear to have little or no communication with the 
rest, and amid the general resemblance have some 
distinguishing characters. The boat, large or small, 
which we almost instinctively associate with our 
idea of the Greenlander, is here wholly unknown. 
Much of their food is found within the deep, but is 
procured merely by walking over the icy surface, 
which incrusts it during the greater part of the year. 
Yet they have one important advantage, not only 
over other Esquimaux, but over the most civilized 
of the native Americans. The country affords iron, 
which, being flattened by sharp stones, and inserted 
in a handle made of the horn of the sea-unicorn, 
forms knives much more efficient than those framed 
of bone by the neighbouring hordes. Again, unlike 
the other tribes, they have a king, who rules seem- 
ingly with gentle sway ; for they described him as 
strong, very good, and very much beloved. The dis- 
coverers did not visit the court of this Arctic poten- 
tate ; but they understood that he drew a tribute, 
S 



206 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

consisting of train-oil, seal-skins, and the bone of 
the unicorn. Like other Greenlanders, they had 
sledges drawn by large and powerful teams of dogs ; 
their chase was chiefly confined to hares, foxes of 
various colours, the seal, and the narwal. They re- 
jected with horror the perverted luxuries of biscuit, 
sweatmeats, or spirits ; train-oil, as it streamed from 
the seal and the unicorn, alone gi'atified their palate. 
Captain Ross, swayed by national impressions, gave 
to this tribe the name of Arctic Highlanders* 

In the northern part of this coast the navigators 
observed a remarkable phenomenon, — a range of 
cliffs, the snowy covering of which had exchanged 
its native white for a tint of dark crimson. This 
red snow was not only examined on the spot, but a 
portion of it was brought to England, and was ana- 
lyzed by the most learned men both at home and 
abroad, who have entertained various opinions as 
to the origin of the colour. The latest observations, 
as elsewhere observed, have established its vegetable 
origin. 

Having now passed Cape Dudley Digges, Captain 
Ross found himself among those spacious sounds 
which Baffin had named, but so imperfectly de- 
scribed. He seems, however, to have followed the 
same hasty method. On looking up an inlet or 
opening, and seeing it, at whatever distance, appa- 
rently closed by land, he pronounced it at once a 
bay, and deemed farther investigation superfluous. 
Too much importance seems also to have been 
attached to barriers of ice, which in many cases were 
only temporary. He sailed past Wolstenholme and 
Whale Sounds very quickly, without approaching 
even their entrance ; concluding them to be blocked 
up with ice, and to afford no hope of a passage. As 
these openings stretched towards the north, it must 
be admitted that they could not in this higli latitude 
be considered very favourable as to a western route. 
He came next to Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, which 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 207 

we may recollect Baffin to have described as the 
most spacious and promising in the whole circuit of 
these coasts. It was viewed with greater attention ; 
but Captain Ross considered himself as having dis- 
tinctly seen it, at the distance of eighteen leagues, 
completely enclosed by land. The space appears too 
great for so positive an inference, and the belief that 
ice barred its entrance seems to have been adopted 
on very slight grounds. He came next to a spacious 
bay, which had hitherto been unknown and unob- 
served, — afterward to that which Baffin had called 
Alderman Jones's Sound ; but in respect to both, the 
ice at their entrance, and the apparent boundary of 
high land in the interior, led, as in the other in- 
stances, to a prompt and unfavourable conclusion. 

The season was now somewhat advanced, the 
end of August approached, the sun set after a per- 
petual day of two months and a half, and a thick 
fog rendered the lengthening nights more gloomy. 
The land, seen at some distance, consisted of very 
high and steep mountains, presenting, however, 
some spots fit for human habitation. An opening, 
forty-five miles wide, to the southward of a promon- 
tory which was named Cape Charlotte, was decided 
against m the usual summary manner. On the 
30th August, the expedition came to a most mag- 
nificent inlet, bordered by lofty mountains of peculiar 
grandeur, while the water, being clear and free from 
ice, presented so tempting an appearance that it was 
impossible to refrain from entering. This channel, 
which soon proved to be the Lancaster Sound of Baf- 
fin, was ascended for thirty miles ; during which run 
officers and men crowded the topmast, filled with 
enthusiastic hope, and judging that it afforded much 
fairer hopes of success than any of those so hastily 

Eassed. Captain Ross however, and those whom 
e consulted, never showed those sanguine expecta- 
tions. He soon thouo^ht that he discovered a high 
ridge stretching directly across the inlet ; and though 



208 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOVAGES. 

a great part of it was deeply involved in mist, yet 
a passage in this direction was judged to be hope- 
less. The sea being open, however, the commander 
proceeded ; but about twelve o'clock Mr. Beverley, 
the assistant-surgeon, came down from the crow's 
nest, stating, that he had seen the land stretching 
very nearly across the entire bay. Hereupon, it is 
said, all hopes were renounced, even by the most 
sanguine, and Captain Ross sailed onward merely for 
the purpose of making some magnetical observa- 
tions. ^ 

At three o'clock, the sky having cleared, the 
commander himself went on deck, when he states 
that he distinctly saw across the bottom of the bay 
a chain of mountains continuous and connected 
with those which formed its opposite shores. The 
weather then becoming unsettled, he made the sig- 
nal to steer the vessels out of Lancaster Sound. 
Lieutenant Parry, however, declares that to him, in 
the Isabella, this signal appeared altogether myste- 
rious, being himself full of the most sanguine ex- 
pectations, and seeing no ground whatever for 
this abrupt retreat ; but his duty obliged him to 
follow. 

On regaining the entrance of this great channel, 
Captain Ross continued to steer southward along the 
western shore of Baffin's Bay and Davis's Strait, with- 
out seeing any entrance which afforded equal pro- 
mise. Cumberland Strait alone was similar in mag- 
nitude ; but it could lead only into the higher lati- 
tudes of Hudson's Bay, and afforded thus little chance 
of a free passage into the Arctic sea. After survey 
ing, therefore, som€ of these shores, he returned 
home early in October. 

The Captain arrived in England under the most 
decided conviction, that Baffin's observations had 
been perfectly correct, and that Lancaster Sound 
was a bay, affording no entrance into any western 
sea. If even any strait existed between the moun* 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 209 

tains, it must, he conceived, be for ever innavi- 
gable on account of the ice with which it is filled. 
The intelligent individuals, however, who had fitted 
out the expedition with such zeal and on so great 
a scale, felt deep dissatisfaction both at this con- 
clusion and at the premises from which it had been 
drawn. The grounds, in particular, on which Lan- 
caster Sound, an opening so noble and so spacious, 
and in a position so favourable in respect to west- 
ern discovery, had been so abruptly quitted, ap- 
peared wholly inadmissible. The same opinion was 
very decidedly espoused by several of the officers, 
and especially by Lieutenant Parry, who was second 
in command, but had never been consulted on the 
occasion, and who declared the relinquishment of 
all attempt at discovery at that crisis to be in his 
eyes completely unaccountable. It was determined 
in short, that a fresh expedition should be equipped 
and intrusted to Mr. Parry, that he might fulfil, if 
possible^ his own sanguine hopes and those of his 
employers. He was furnished with the Hecla of 
375 tons, and a crew of fifty-eight men ; and with 
the Griper gun-brig of 180 tons, and thirty-six men, 
commanded by Lieutenant Liddon. These ships 
were made as strong and as well-fitted as possible 
for the navigation of the Arctic seas ; and were 
stored with ample provisions for two years, a copious 
supply of antiscorbutics, and every thing which 
could enable the crews to endure the most extreme 
rigours of a Polar winter. 

Lieutenant Parry, destined to outstrip all his 
predecessors in the career of Arctic discovery , weighed 
anchor from the Nore on the 11th May (1819), and 
on the 20th rounded the most northerly point of 
the Orkneys. He endeavoured to cross the Atlantic 
about the parallel of 58°, and though impeded during 
the first fortnight of June by a series of unfavourable 
weather, obtained on the 15th, from the distance 
apparently of not less than forty leagues, a view of 
S3 



210 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

the lofty cliffs composing Cape Farewell. On the 
18th the ships first fell in with icebergs, the air 
being also filled with petrels, kittiwakes, terns, 
and other winged inhabitants of the northern sky. 
Parry now made an effort to push north and west, 
through the icy masses, in the direction of Lan- 
caster Sound ; but these suddenly closed upon him ; 
and on the 25th the two ships were so immove- 
ably beset, that no power could turn their heads a 
single point of the compass. The vessels remained 
thus fixed, but safe, when, on the morning of the 
second day, a heavy roll of the sea loosened the 
ice, and drove its masses against them with such 
violence that only their very strong construction 
saved them from severe injury. The discoverers 
therefore were fain to extricate themselves as soon 
as possible ; and, resigning the idea of reaching Lan- 
caster Sound by the most direct route, began to 
coast northward along the border of this great icy 
field, till they should find open water. In this pro- 
gress they verified the observation of Davis, that in 
the narrowest part of the great sea, misnamed his 
Strait, the shores on each side could be discovered 
at the same moment. Thus they proceeded, till 
they reached the Women's Islands, and Hope San- 
derson, in about latitude 73°. As every step was 
now likely to carry them farther from their destina- 
tion. Parry determined upon a desperate push to the 
westward. Favoured with a moderate breeze, the 
ships were run into the detached pieces and floes of 
ice, through which they were heaved with hawsers ; 
but the obstacles became always heavier, till they 
were completely beset, and a heavy fog coming on, 
made them little able to take advantage of any 
favourable change. Yet in the course of a week, 
though repeatedly and sometimes dangerously beset, 
they warped their way from lane to lane of open 
water, till only one lengthened floe separated them 
from a wide open sea to the westward. By labo- 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 211 

riously sawing through this obstruction, they were 
able to penetrate finally the great icy barrier, and saw 
the westernishore, clear of ice, extending before them. 

The navigators now bore directly down upon Lan- 
caster Sound, and on the 30th July found them- 
selves at its entrance. They felt an extraordinary 
emotion as they recognised this magnificent chan- 
nel, with the lofty cliffs by which it was guarded, 
aware that a very short time would decide the fate 
of their grand undertaking. They were tantalized, 
however, by a fresh breeze coming directly down 
the Sound, which suffered them to make only very 
slow progress. There was no appearance, however, 
of obstruction either from ice or land, and even the 
heavy swell which came down the inlet, driving the 
water repeatedly in at the stern-windows, was hailed 
as an indication of open sea to the westward. The 
Hecla left the Griper behind, but still without mak- 
ing any great way herself till the 3d August, when 
an easterly breeze sprung up, carrying both vessels 
rapidly forward. A crowd of sail was set, and they 
pushed triumphantly to the westward. Their minds 
were filled with anxious hope and suspense. The 
mast-heads were crowded with oflftcers and men, 
and the successive reports brought down from the 
topmast pinnacle, called the crow's nest, were eagerly 
listened to. Their course was still unobstructed. 
They passed various headlands, with several wide 
openings towards the north and south, which they 
hastily named Croker Bay, Navy Board Inlet, &c. ; 
but these it was not their present object to explore.' 
The wind, freshening more and more, carried them 
happily forward, till at midnight they found them- 
selves in longitude 83° 12', nearly a hundred and 
fifty miles from the mouth of the grand inlet, which 
still retained a breadth of fifty miles. The success 
of the expedition, they fondly hoped, was now to a 
great extent decided. 

The Hecla, at this time, slackened her course to 



212 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

allow her companion to come up, which she did in 
longitude 85°. They together proceeded to longi- 
tude 86° 30', and found two other inlets, which 
they named Burnet and Stratton ; then a bold cape 
named Fellfoot, forming apparently the termination 
of this long line of coast. The lengthened swell 
which still rolled in from the north and west, with 
the oceanic colour of the waters, inspired the flat- 
tering hope that they had already passed the region 
of straits and inlets, and were now wafted along the 
wide expanse of the Polar basin. Nothing, in short, 
it was hoped, would henceforth obstruct their pro- 
gress to Icy Cape, the western boundary of America. 
An alarm of land was given, but it proved to arise 
only from an island of no great extent. However, 
more land was soon discovered beyond Cape Fell- 
foot, which was ascertained to be the entrance to a 
noble bay, extending on their right, which they named 
Maxwell Bay. An uninterrupted range of sea still 
stretched out before them, though they were some- 
what discomposed by seeing on the south a line of 
continuous ice ; but it left an open route before them, 
and they hoped to find it merely a detached stream. A 
little space onwards, however, they discovered, with 
deep dismay, this ice to be joined to a compact and 
impenetrable body of floes, which completely crossed 
the channel, and joined the western point of Max- 
well Bay. It behooved them, therefore, immediately 
to draw back, to avoid being embayed in ice, along 
the edges of which a violent surf was then beating. 
The officers began to amuse themselves with fruitless 
attempts to catch white whales, when the weather 
cleared, and they saw to the south an open sea with 
a dark water-sky. Parry, hoping that this might 
lead to a free passage in a lower latitude, steered 
in this direction, and found himself at the mouth 
of a great inlet, ten leagues broad, with no visible 
termination ; and to the two capes at its entrance he 
gave the names of Clarence and Seppings 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 213 

The mariners, finding the western shore of this inlet 
deeply encumbered with ice, moved across to the 
eastern, where they found a broad and open chan 
nel. The coast was the most dreary and desolate 
they had ever beheld even in the Arctic world, pre- 
senting scarcely a semblance either of animal or ve- 
getable life. Navigation was rendered more arduous 
from the entire irregularity of the compass, now evi- 
dently approaching to the magnetic Pole, and show- 
ing an excess of variation which they vainly attempted 
to measure, so that the binnacles were laid aside 
as useless lumber. They sailed a hundred and 
twenty miles up this inlet, and its augmenting width 
inspired them with corresponding hopes ; when, 
with extreme consternation, they suddenly perceived 
the ice to diverge from its parallel course, running 
close in with a point of land which appeared to 
form the southern extremity of the eastern shore. 
To this foreland they gave the name of Cape Kater. 
The western horizon also appeared covered with 
heavy and extensive floes, a bright and dazzling ice- 
blink extending from shore to shore. The name of 
the Prince Regent was given to this spacious inlet, 
which Parry strongly suspected must have a com- 
munication with Hudson's Bay. He now determined 
to return to the old station, and watch the op- 
portunity when the relenting ice would allow the 
ships to proceed westward. That station was 
reached not without some difficulty, amid ice and 
fog. At Prince Leopold's Islands, on the 15th, the 
ice was as impenetrable as ever, with a bright blink, 
and from the top of a high hill there was no water 
to be seen ; luckily also there was no land. On the 
18th, on getting once more close to the northern 
shore, the navigators began to make a little way, 
and some showers of rain and snow, accompanied 
with heavy wind, produced such an effect, that on 
the 21st the whole ice had disappeared, and they 
eould scarcely believe it to be the same sea which 



214 HECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

had just before been covered with floes upon floes as 
far as the eye could reach. 

Mr. Parry now crowded all sail to the westward, 
and, though detained by want of wind, he passed 
Radstock Bay, Capes Hurd and Hotham, and Beechy 
Island ; after which he reached a fine and broad inlet 
leading to the north, to which he assigned Welling- 
ton, the greatest name of the age. The sea up this 
inlet being perfectly open, he would not have hesi- 
tated to ascend it, had there not been before him, 
along the south coast of an island named Cornwal- 
lis, an open channel, leading in a direction, which, 
being due west, he could have no hesitation in pre- 
ferring. Wellington Inlet was now considered by 
the navigators, so high were their hopes, as forming 
the western boundary of the land stretching from 
Baffin's Bay to the Polar Sea, into which they had 
little doubt they were entering. For this reason Cap- 
tain Parry did not hesitate to give to the great chan- 
nel which had effected so desirable a junction the 
merited appellation of Barrow's Strait, after the much- 
esteemed promoter of the expedition. A favourable 
breeze now sprung up, and the adventurers passed 
gayly and triumphantly along the extensive shore of 
Cornwallis Island, then coasted a larger island named 
Bathurst, and next a smaller one called Byam Mar- 
tin. At this last place, they judged, by some expe- 
riments, that they had passed the magnetic meridian, 
situated, probably, in about 100 degrees west longi- 
tude, and where the compass would have pointed due 
south instead of due north. The navigation now be- 
came extremely difficult, in consequence of thick 
fogs, which not only froze on the shrouds, but, as the 
compass was also useless, took away all means of 
knowing the direction in which they sailed. They 
were obliged to trust to the land and ice preserving 
the same line, and sometimes employed the most odd 
expedients for ascertaining the precise point. They 
encountered also a compact floe of ice. through 



nECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 215 

Xirhich they were obliged to bore their way by main 
force. Through all these obstacles they reached the 
coast of an island larger than any before discovered, 
to which they gave the name of Melville. The wind 
now failed, and they slowly moved forward by tow- 
ing and warping, till, on the 4th September, Mr. Parry 
could announce to his joyful crew, that, having reached 
the longitude of 110° W. they were become entitled 
to the reward of £5000, promised by Parliament to 
the first crew who should attain that meridian. The 
mariners pushed forward with redoubled ardour, but 
soon found their course arrested by an impenetrable, 
icy barrier. They waited nearly a fortnight in hopes 
of overcoming it ; till about the 20th their situation 
became alarming. The young ice began rapidly to 
form on the surface of the waters, retarded only by 
winds and swells ; so that Captain Parry was con- 
vinced, in the event of a single hour's calm, that he 
would be frozen up in the midst of the sea. No op- 
tion was therefore left but to return, and to choose 
between two apparently good harbours, which had 
been recently passed on Melville Island. Not with- 
out difficulty he reached this place by the 24th, and 
made choice of the most western harbour, as that 
alone which afforded full security ; but it was neces- 
sary to cut two miles through a large floe with which 
it was filled. To eflfect this arduous operation, the 
seamen marked with boarding-pikes two parallel 
lines, at the distance of somewhat more than the 
breadth of the larger ship. They sawed along 
these two lines, and then by cross-sawings detached 
large pieces, which w^ere separated diagonally in 
order to be floated out ; and sometimes boat sails 
were fastened to them to take the advantage of a 
favourable breeze. On the 26th the ships were es- 
tablished in five fathoms water, at about a cable's 
length from the beach. For some time the ice was 
daily cleared round them; but this was soon found 



216 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGE'S. 

an endless and useless labour, and they were allowed 
to be regularly frozen in for the winter. 

Mr. Parry then applied himself to name the ex- 
tended group of large islands along which he had 
passed. He called them at first New-Georgia ; but, 
recollecting that this appellation had been pre-occu- 
pied by a large island in the Pacific, he gave the 
name of " the North Georgian Islands," after his 
majesty George III., whose reign had been so emi- 
nently distinguished by the extension of nautical 
and geographical knowledge. 

The commander, finding himself and his ships 
shut in for a long and dreary winter, devoted his at- 
tention, with judicious activity, and a mixture of 
firmness and kindness, to mitigate those evils, which, 
even in lower latitudes, had often rendered an Arctic 
wintering so fatal. His provisions being very ample, 
he allowed the sailors weekly a pound of Donkin's 
preserved meat, and a pint of concentrated soup, in- 
stead of a pound of salt beef; beer and wine were 
served instead of spirits; and a certain allowance 
was made of sour-krout, pickles, and vinegar. The 
sailors were also called together daily, and made to 
swallow a quantity of lime-juice and sugar in" pre- 
sence of the officers, their improvidence being such 
as to afford otherwise no hope of their spontaneously 
imbibing this salutary draught. Their gums and 
shins were also regularly examined, in order to detect 
scurvy in its earliest symptoms. It was necessary 
to be very economical of fuel, the small quantity of 
moss and turf which could be collected being too wet 
to be of any use. By placing the apparatus for bak- 
ing in a central position, and by several other arrange- 
ments, the cabin was maintained in a very comforta- 
ble temperature ; but still, around its extremities and 
in the bed-places, steam, vapour, and even the breath 
settled, first as moisture and then as ice ; to diy and 
remove these annoyances became therefore a part of 
their daily employment. 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES* 2lt 

Mr. Parry was, from the firsts aware that nothing 
^cted more strongly as an antiscorbutic, than to keep 
the men's minds in a lively and cheerful state. His 
plans for this purpose were very original, and proved 
very effectual. Arrangements were made for the oc- 
casional performance of a play, in a region very re* 
mote certainly from any to which the drama appeared 
congenial. Lieutenant Beechy was nominated stage- 
manager, and the officers came forward as amateur 
performers. The very expectation thus raised amon^ 
the seamen, and the bustle of preparing a room for 
the purpose, were extremely salutary ; and when the 
North Georgian theatre opened with " Miss In hei 
Teens," these hardy tars were convulsed with laugh-* 
ter, not a little excited, perhaps, by viewing their 
officers in so singular and novel a position ; at all 
events the Arctic management was extremely 
popular. As the small stock contained in one or 
two chance volumes was exhausted, original com^ 
positions were produced, and afterward formed 
into a little collection. The officers had another 
source of amusement in the North Georgia Ga^ 
zette, of which Captain Sabine became editor, and 
all were invited to contribute to this chronicle of 
the frozen regions. Even tho^e who hositated to 
appear as writers, enlivened the circle by severe but 
good*humoured criticisms. 

Thus passed the time, 
Till, through the lucid chambers of the south, 
Looked out the joyous Sun, 

It was on the 4th November that this great orb 
ought to have taken his leave ; but a deep haze pre* 
vented them from bidding a formal farewell, and 
from ascertaining the period down to which refrac* 
tion would have rendered him visible ; yet he was 
reported to be seen from the mast-head on the llth* 
Amid various occupations and amusements, the 
shortest day came on almost unexpected, and the sef^^ 
T 



2^18 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

men then watched with pleasure the midday twi- 
light gradually strengthening. On the 28th Janu-^ 
ary none of the fixed stars could be seen at noon 
by the naked eye ; and on the 1st and 2d of Febru- 
ary the sun was looked for, but the sky was wrapped 
in mist ; however, on the 3d he was perceived from 
the maintop of the Hecla. Through the greatest 
depth of the Polar night, the officers, during the 
Brief twilight, had taken a regular walk of two or 
three hours ; avoiding only to go farther than a mile^ 
test they should be overtaken by snow-drift. There 
was a want of objects to diversify this walk. A 
dreary monotonous surface of dazzling white covered 
land and sea : the view of the ships, the smoke as- 
cending from them, the sound of human voices, 
which through the calm and cold air was carried to 
an extraordinary distance, alone gave any animation 
to this wintry scene. The officers, however, perse- 
vered in their daily walk, and exercise was also en- 
forced upon the men, who, even whjen prevented by 
the weather from leaving the vessel, were made to 
run round the deck, keeping time to the tune of an 
organ. This movement they did not at first entirely 
relish ; but no plea against it being admitted, they 
converted it at last into matter of frolic. 

By the above means health was maintained on; 
board the ships to a surprising degree. Early in Ja- 
nuary, however, Mr. Scallon, the gunner, felt 
symptoms, first in the legs and then in the gums, 
that decidedly indicated the presence of scurvy, of 
which the immediate cause appeared to be the great 
collection of damp which had formed round his bed- 
place. At this first alarm, all the antiscorbutics on 
board, lemon-juice, pickles, spruce-beer, &c. were 
put into requisition ; a small quantity of mustard and 
cress was also raised from mould placed over the 
stove-pipe ; and such was the success of these mea- 
sures, that in nine days the patient could walk with- 
out pain. Farther on in the season a number of- 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 2^19 

slighter cases occurred, which were somewhat ag- 
gravated by an accident. As the men were taking 
5ieir musical perambulation round the deck, a house 
erected on shore, and containing a number of the 
most valuable instruments, was seen to be on fire. 
The crew instantly ran, pulled off the roof with 
ropes, knocked down a part of the sides, and being 
thus enabled to throw in large quantities of snow, 
succeeded in subduing the flames. Now, however, 
their faces presented a curious spectacle, every nose 
and cheek being white with frost-bites, while the me- 
dical gentlemen, with their assistant's, were obliged 
to run from one to the other, and rub them with 
snow, in order to restore animation. With one man 
the amputation of several of his fingers became ne- 
cessary, and no less than sixteen were added to the 
sick-list. 

The animal tribes disappeared early in the winter 
from this frozen region. The officers, on the 15th 
October, made a shooting excursion, enjoying a very 
fine day, though with the thermometer 47° below the 
freezing point ; but they did not find a deer, a grouse, 
or any animal which could be ranked as game. All 
of them, deserting this wintry realm, had crossed 
the seas to America. There remained only a pack 
of wolves, which serenaded the crews nightly, not 
venturing to attack, but contriving to avoid being 
captured. A beautiful white fox was caught and 
made a pet of. On the 12th May one of the men 
gave notice that he had seen a ptarmigan ; and at- 
tention being thus excited, Mr. Beverley next day 
brought one down, and on the 15th three coveys 
were discovered. The footsteps of deer were also 
seen, which, from the impression made on the snow, 
seemed to be moving northward. From this time 
ptarmigans were supplied in tolerable numbers ; but 
they were made strictly a common good, being di- 
vided equally among the crew, with only a preference 
in favour of the sick There was found, also, mixed 



220 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

with moss under the snow, an abundance of the 
herb sorrel, a most potent antidote against scurvy. 
By these supphes, and by the more genial weather, the 
health of the crew, which at the end of March had 
been in a somewhat alarming state, was completely 
restored before the beginning of June. In extending 
their excursions, however, they were considerably 
incommoded by that distressing inflammation of the 
eyes, produced from the glare of snow, called snow- 
blindness. It was cured in a few days by cold appli- 
cations, and it was prevented in future by covering 
the eyes, or by wearing spectacles, in which crape 
was used instead of glass. 

On the 1 6th March the North Georgian theatre was 
closed with an appropriate address, and the general 
attention was now turned to the means of extrication 
from the ice. By the 17th May the seamen had so 
far cut the ice from around the ships as to allow them 
to float ; but in the sea it was still immoveable. This 
interval of painful inaction was employed by Cap- 
tain Parry in an excursion across Melville Island, 
The ground was still mostly covered with softened 
snow, and even the cleared tracts were extremely de- 
solate, though checkered by intervals of fine verdure. 
Deer were seen traversing the plains in considerable 
numbers. To the north appeared another island, to 
which was given the name of Sabine. By the mid- 
dle of June pools were every where formed ; the dis- 
solved water flowed in streams, and even in torrents, 
which rendered hunting and travelling unsafe. There 
were also channels of water in which boats could 
pass ; yet throughout June and July the great cover- 
ing of ice in the surrounding sea remained entire, 
and kept the ships in harbour. On the 2d of August, 
however, the whole mass, by one of those sudden 
movements to which it is liable, broke up and floated 
out ; and the explorers had now open water in which 
to prose-cute their discovery. It was consolatory 
to think, that this was the very season at which they 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 221 

had last year entered Lancaster Sound ; and if they 
could make as brilliant a voyage this summer, the 
following" one would see them not far from Behring's 
Straits. But it was not without some obstructions 
that on the 4th they reached the same spot where 
their progress had been formerly arrested. On the 
15th they were enabled to make a certain progress; 
after which the frozen surface of the ocean assumed 
a more compact and impenetrable aspect than had 
ever before been witnessed. The officers ascended 
some of the lofty heights which bordered the coast ; 
but, in a long reach of sea to the westward, no 
boundary was seen to these icy barriers. There 
appeared only the western extremity of Melville 
Island, named Cape Dundas ; and in the distance a 
bold high coast, which they named Banks's Land. 
As even a brisk easterly gale did not produce the 
slightest movement in this frozen surface, they were 
led to believe that on the other side there must be a 
large barrier of land, by which it was held in a fixed 
state. On considering all circumstances, there ap- 
peared no alternative but to make their way home- 
ward while yet the season permitted. Some addi- 
tional observations were made on their return, on 
the two coasts extending along Barrow's Strait. 

Mr. Parry's arrival in Britain was hailed with the 
highest exultation. To have sailed upwards of thirty 
degrees of longitude beyond the point reached by 
any former navigator, — to have discovered so many 
new lands, islands, and bays, — to have established 
the much-contested existence of a Polar sea north 
of America, — finally, after a wintering of eleven 
months, to have brought back his crew in a sound 
and vigorous state,* — were enough to raise his name 
above that of any former Arctic voyager. 

* Only one man died in the course of their lon^ and perilous voyage, 
but whose disease was noway referrible to a connexion with the expe- 
dition, the origin of his malady having been of a date antenor to the 
sailing of the ships. 

T2 



222 RECENT NORTH-WEST VuYAGES. 

No hesitation was felt as to sending out another 
expedition ; but, considering the strength of the ulti- 
mate barriers which had twice arrested the progress 
of the last, it became important to consider whether 
there was not any other channel by which the Polar 
sea, now ascertained to exist, might be reached and 
traversed with greater facility. In Hudson's Bay, 
neither of the great northern sounds of the Welcome 
nor of Fox's Channel had been traced to a termina- 
tion. Middleton, in the former inlet, had ascended 
higher than any other navigator ; but a thick cloud 
had been raised around his reputation, and his Fro- 
zen Strait, after all, was very likely to be only a 
temporary barrier. If from either of these sounds a 
passage should open into the Polar sea, it might be 
navigated in a much lower latitude than that in 
which Parry had wintered, and might perhaps be 
also free from those large insular masses in which 
he had been entangled. There was fitted out then 
a new expedition, in which the Fury, of 327 tons, 
was conjoined with the Hecla ; the commander con- 
ceiving that two vessels of nearly equal dimensions 
were best calculated for co-operating with and aid- 
ing each other, while the examination of coasts and 
inlets could best be carried on by boats. This of- 
ficer, now promoted to the rank of Captain, hoisted 
his flag on board the Fury; while Captain Lyon, 
already distinguished by his servi-'^es in Africa, re- 
ceived the command of the Hecla, and proved him- 
self fully competent to the arduous duties of this 
new service. The equipment, the victualling, and 
the heating of the vessels, were all arranged with 
the greatest care, and with various improvements 
suggested by experience. 

The expedition was ready to sail on the 8th May, 
1821, and having then quitted the Nore, passed 
through the Pentland Frith and by Cape Farewell, 
suffering repeated detention ; but we shall not pause 
till we find it on the 2d July at the mouth of Hudson's 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 223 

Straits. Captain Parry, accustomed as he was to 
scenes of Polar desolation, was struck with the pe- 
culiarly dreary aspect which these shores presented. 
The naked rocks, the snow still covering- the valleys, 
and the thick fogs that hung over them, rendered 
the scene indescribably gloomy. The ships were 
soon surrounded by icebergs, which in one place 
amounted to the number of fifty-four, — one rising 
258 feet above the sea. They were attended by 
large floes, rendered very formidable by their rota- 
tory motion. The peculiar danger of these straits, 
often remarked by former navigators, arises from the 
strong tides and currents that rush in from the 
Atlantic, and cause continual and violent move- 
ments among the huge icy masses with which the 
channels are filled. Captain Lyon had proof of their 
strength when he had two hawsers repeatedly car- 
ried away, and his best bower-anchor, weighing more 
than a ton, wrenched from the bows, and broken off as 
if it had been crockery-ware. Amid these troubles, 
the sailors were amused by the sight of three com- 
panion-ships, two belonging to the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and one bringing out settlers for Lord 
Selkirk's colony. These last, who were cliiefly 
Dutch and Germans, were seen waltzing on deck 
often for hours together, and were only driven in by 
a severe fall of snow. Although almost in despair 
at the numerous detentions they had experienced, 
they recreated themselves from time to time by ma- 
trimonial arrangements, in which they were so dili- 
gent, that, it is said, there was scarcely a ball which 
did not end in a marriage. 

Amid these obstructions, the ships spent nineteen 
days in making seventy miles; which course, how- 
ever, brought them, on the 21st, within two leagues 
of what are called the Savage Islands. On the follow- 
ing afternoon a loud shouting was heard over the ice 
and soon after there appeared a numerous band of 
natives, paddling their canoes through the lanes of 



^24 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 



open water, or, where these failed, drawing them 
over the pieces of ice. Among a great number of 
kayaks, or boats rowed by a single man (see plate, 
p. 164), were five oomiaks, or women's boats, con- 




structed of a framework of wood and whalebone, 
covered with deer-skins, having flat sides and bot- 
tom, and of considerable size. One of them, 25 feet 
by 8, contained women, boys, and children, to the 
number of twenty-one. Presently began a wild, 
merry, noisy scene of frolic and traffic. The natives 
carried it on with eagerness and even fury, stripping 
themselves of the very skins which formed their 
only covering, till they were in a state of total nu- 
dity, except that the ladies always made a laudable 
reservation of their breeches. They drove what 
they meant should be an excessively hard bargain 
yet, being wholly ignorant of the value of the rich 
skins with which nature has invested the animals 
of this Arctic climate, they raised shouts of triumph 
when they obtained in exchange a nail, a saw, of a 
razor. Their aspect was wilder and more dishevelled 
than that of any other tribe even among this rude 
race ; their character also seems fiercer and more sa- 
vage ; and indeed it is in this quarter that most of the 
tragical encounters with Esquimaux have occurred. 
Some of the ancient dames were pronounced to be the 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 2L,> 

most hideous objects that mortal eye had ever be- 
held ; inflamed eyes, wrinkled skin, black teeth, and 
deformed features, rendered them scarcely human : 
hence much apology was found for the dark and 
dire suspicions cherished by Frobisher's crew re- 
specting one of these damsels, and the odd investi- 
gation to which it had prompted. The children 
were rather pretty; though, from being thrown 
carelessly into the bottom of the boats, they had 
much the appearance of the young of wild animals. 
Besides traffic, the natives carried on a great deal of 
rather rude frolic, like that of ill-regulated school- 
boys. One of them got behind a sailor, shouted 
loudly in one ear, and gave him a hearty box on the 
other, which was hailed with a loud and general 
laugh. They also carried on a dance, consisting 
chiefly of violent leaping and stamping, though in 
tolerable time. 

In spite of every obstruction, Captain Parry, early 
in August, reached the entrance of Fox's Channel, 
and came in view of Southampton Island. It was 
now the question, whether to sail directly up this 
channel, and reach, by a comparatively short route, 
Repulse Bay and the higher latitudes, or to make 
the south-western circuit of Southampton Island, 
and ascend the beaten track of the Welcome. 
Captain Parry judiciously preferred the former, not- 
withstanding its uncertainties, on account of the 
great time which would be saved should this course 
be found practicable. On the 15th he came to a 
strait stretching westward, and apparently separating 
the island from other land on the north. Hoping to 
find this the Frozen Strait of Middleton, he entered 
it ; but it soon proved a spacious and beautiful basin, 
enclosed by laud on every side. He named it the 
Duke of York's Bay, and considered it one of the 
finest harbours in the world ; but, after admiring a 
large floe covered entirely with minerals, shells, and 
plants, he moved out of it, and pursued the voyage. 



226 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

On the 21st the navigators found themselves in 
another strait, not much encumbered with ice, but 
darkened by thick fogs ; and, before they almost 
knew where they were, a heavy swell from the 
southward showed that they had passed through the 
Frozen Strait, and were in the broad channel of 
the Welcome. They speedily entered Repulse Bay, 
in which modern speculation had cherished the 
hope of a passage ; but a short investigation, made 
by boats in every direction, proved that it was really 
as Middleton had described it, completely enclosed. 
A good deal of time had thus been lost through the 
skepticism so unjustly attached to the narrative of 
that eminent navigator. 

Captain Parry, having come with all speed out of 
Repulse Bay, began the career of discovery along a 
coast hitherto unknown. An inlet was soon found, 
and called by the name of Gore ; but when ascended 
a certain length, it was not found to reach far inland. 
At the mouth of this opening, the valleys were richly 
clad with grass and moss, the birds singing, butterflies 
and other insects displaying the most gaudy tints, so 
that the sailors might have fancied themselves in some 
happier climate, had not the mighty piles of ice in 
the Frozen Strait told a different tale. Hunting par- 
ties traversed the country in various directions, and 
the game-laws of the preceding year were strictly 
re-enacted, by which every beast or bird slain was to 
be employed for the general good, allowing only the 
head and legs as a douceur to the captor. The latter 
however, adopted and made good a theory, agreeably 
to which the description, head, was greatly extended, 
so as to include even several joints of the back-bone. 

Having passed Gore Inlet, the expedition found 
itself among those numerous isles described by Mid- 
dleton, which formed a complete labyrinth of various 
shapes and sizes, while strong currents setting 
between them in various directions, amid fogs and 
djrifting ice, rendered the navigation truly perilous. 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 22? 

The Fury was assailed by successive masses rushing 
out from an inlet ; her anchor was dragg-ed along- the 
rocks with a grinding noise, and on being drawn up, 
the two flukes were found to be broken off. The same 
vessel was afterward carried along by a violent cur- 
rent, amid thick mist, without there being any means 
of guiding or altering its direction ; so that Captain 
Parry considers it altogether providential that she 
was not dashed to pieces against the surrounding 
rocks. However, one channel, and one only, was 
found, by which the mariners at last made their way 
through this perilous maze. No sooner had they 
reached the open sea, than, being obliged to run before 
a strong northerly breeze, they were much dis- 
heartened to find themselves, on the 3d of September^ 
at the very point which they had left the preceding 
6th of August. All the interval had been employed 
in the mere negative discovery, that there was nothing 
to discover. 

Captain Parry soon reached the northern coast, 
and resumed his task, which was rendered very 
tedious by the necessity of examining every opening 
and channel, in the hope that each might prove the 
desired passage into the Polar ocean. He first ex- 
plored a large inlet, the name of which he gave ta 
Captain Lyon, then a smaller one, which was named 
from Lieutenant Hoppner ; and, by connecting these 
with Gore Inlet, he completed his delineation of the 
coast. The seamen had then the pleasure of opening 
a traffic with a party of Esquimaux, whose first 
timidity was soon overcome by the hope of being 
supplied witfl some iron tools. In the course of this 
transaction, the surprise of the crew was roused by 
the conduct of a lady, who had sold one boot, but 
obstinately retained the other in disregard of the 
strongest remonstrances as to the ridiculous figure 
she in consequence made. At length, suspicion roses 
to such a pitch, that, all courtesy being set aside, her 
person was laid hold of, and the boot pulled off. 
Then indeed it proved a complete depository of stolen. 



228 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

treasure, since no less than two spoons and apewtef 
plate were found within this capacious receptacle. 

The end of September now approached, and Cap* 
tain Parry found himself suddenly in the depth of 
winter. Snow had been falling during the whole of 
the short summer ; but the united warmth of the air 
and earth had melted it as it fell, and left the ground 
still open to the sun's rays. In one moment, as it 
were, the snow made good its lodgment, and spread 
its white and dazzling mantle over land and sea* 
The rays being then no longer able to reach the soil, 
the whole became subject to permanent and impene-* 
trable frost. Some parts of the snow were indeed 
dissolved, and then refrozen in varied and beautiful 
forms of crystallization ; whereas at Melville Island, 
the dead white covering once spread over nature had 
never changed its aspect, A more serious symptom 
existed in the rapid formation of the soft or pancake 
ice on the surface of the deep. The obstacle pre* 
sented by this crust was at first so slight as to be 
scarcely felt by a ship before a favouring gale ; but 
it continually increased, till the vessel, rolling from 
side to side, and all her resources failing, became, like 
Gulliver, bound by the feeble hands of Lilliputians. 
At the same time the various pieces of drift-ice, 
which were tossing in the sea without, had been ce- 
mented into one great field called " the ice," that 
threatened every moment to bear down upon the ves* 
sels, and dash them in pieces. Under this combi- 
nation of circumstances, the navigators could no 
longer even attempt to reach the land, but determined 
to saw into the heart of a large adjoining floe, and 
there take up their winter-quarters. There was about 
half a mile to penetrate, which, in the present soft 
state of the pancake ice, was not very laborious. It 
was, however, far from pleasant, the ice bending like 
leather beneath their feet, and causing them some- 
times to sink into the water, whence they did not 
escape without a very cold bath. 

Captain Parry was now frozen up for another winter 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 229 

in the midst of the northern sea, and he forthwith 
applied himself to make the necessary arrangements 
with that judicious foresight which had been already 
so conspicuous in the same trying circumstances. 
Through lessons taught by experience, and by several 
ingenious contrivances, the ships were much more 
thoroughly heated than in the former voyage ; the 
provisioning, too, was more ample, and antidotes 
against scurvy still more copiously supplied. The 
Polar theatre opened on the 9th November with " The 
Rivals." Captains Parry and Lyon volunteered to 
appear as Sir Anthony and Captain Absolute ; while 
the ladies had very generously removed an ample 
growth of beard, disregarding the comfortable warmth 
which it afforded in an Arctic climate. The com- 
pany were well received, and carried through their 
perfonnances with unabated spirit ; yet this season 
does not seem to have gone off quite with the same 
eclat as the preceding. Novelty, from the first the 
chief attraction, had worn off, and the discomfort of 
a stage, the exhibitions of which were attended with 
a cold thirty degrees under the freezing point, became 
rather severe. The sailors found for themselves a 
more sober and useful, as well as efficacious remedy 
against ennui. They established a school, in which 
the better instructed undertook to revive the know- 
ledge of letters among others who had almost en- 
tirely lost the slight tincture which they had once 
imbibed. These hardy tars applied themselves to 
their book with ardent and laudable zeal, and showed 
a pride in their new attainments like that of little 
boys at school. By Christmas sixteen well-written 
copies were forthcoming from those who, two 
months before, could scarcely form a letter. Amid 
these varied and pleasing occupations, the shortest 
day passed over their heads almost unobserved, 
especially as the sun never entirely left them. Cap-^ 
tain Lyon never saw a merrier Christmas than was 
celebrated on board. The sailors, being amply re- 
U 



230 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES* 

galed with fresh beef, cranberry pies, and grog, 
became so extremely elevated, that they insisted on 
successively drinking-, with three hearty cheers, the 
health of each officer. 

The animal world, in this less rigorous climate, 
even though the ground was completely frozen over, 
did not disappear so entirely as on Melville Island. 
A few solitary hares were caught ; but they were in 
a miserable state of leanness, weighing only five or 
six pounds, and had a pure white covering, which 
resembled swan's down rather than hair. About a 
hundred white foxes were found in the nets during 
the winter. These beautiful creatures, when first 
caught, were perfectly wild and ungovernable ; 
but shortly the young ones at least threw off this 
timidity. A delicate little animal found one day 
in the snare proved to be an ermine ; but it was 
excessively frightened, and to the general regret 
soon died. 

The winter months were also enlivened by various 
beautiful appearances which the sky at that season 
presented. The northern world, when the sun de- 
parts, is by no means involved in that deep, mono- 
tonous gloom which such a privation might indicate. 
After that luminary has finally quitted the earth, and 
the long northern winter has closed in, the heavens 
become a gay scene, through which the most brilliant 
meteors are perpetually playing. Those singular 
and beautiful streams of light, called commonly the 
Aurora Borealis, or Northern Morning, keep up an 
almost incessant illumination. They were discerned 
in full splendour by Captains Parry and Lyon during 
their Arctic residence. The light had a tendency to 
form an irregular arch, which, in calm weather, was 
often very distinct, though its upper boundary was 
seldom well defined; but, whenever the air became 
agitated, showers of rays spread in every direction, 
with the brilliancy and rapidity of lightning. Some- 
times long bands of light were spread out with 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 231 

mconceivable rapidity, but always appearing to move 
to and from a fixed point, somewhat like a riband 
held in the hand and shaken with an undiilatory 
motion. No rule, however, could be traced in the 
movement of those lighter parcels called " the merry 
dancers," which flew about perpetually in every 
direction and towards every quarter. In stormy 
weather the northern lights always became more 
rapid in their motions, sharing all the wildness of 
the blast. They gave an indescribable air of magic 
to the whole scene, and made it not wonderful, that 
by the untaught Indian they should be viewed as 
" the spirits of his fathers roaming through the land 
of souls." 

Several questions have been agitated with respect 
to the Aurora. It has been said to be accompanied 
with a hissing and cracking noise ; and indeed Cap- 
tain Lyon observes, that the sudden glare and rapid 
bursts of those wondrous showers of fire make it 
difficult to fancy their movements wholly without 
sound. Y^t nothing was really ever heard. Captain 
Parry complains, that he could not expose his ears 
to the cold long enough completely to ascertain the 
point ; but Captain Ijyon declares, that he stood for 
hours on the ice listening, and at a distance from 
every sounding body, till he became thoroughly satis- 
fied that none proceeded from the Aurora. It has 
been a question whether this meteor hid the stars ; 
it was generally decided that it dimmed the lustre of 
those heavenly bodies, as if a thin gauze veil had 
been drawn over them, — an effect which was aug- 
mented when several luminous portions were spread 
over each other. In a clear atmosphere these lights 
shone with a brightness which gave the impression 
that they were nearer than the clouds : but whenever 
these last overspread the sky, the Aurora was hi(j 
bry them, and must therefore have been more distant 
To Captain Parry the light appeared to assume tints 
of yellow and lilac; but to Captain Lyon its colour 



232 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

always resembled that of the Milky- Way, or of very- 
vivid sheet-lightning. The present writer saw the 
Aurora once, and only once, in its utmost brilliancy, 
and exhibiting all the phenomena described by these 
northern observers, — his impressions agreeing parti 
eularly with those of Captain Lyon. 

Other luminous meteors, arising apparently from 
the refraction caused by the minute and highly-crys- 
tallized spiculae of ice, appear in succession to em- 
bellish the northern sky. The sun and moon are 
often surrounded with halos, — concentric circles of 
vapour, tinted with the brightest hues of the rain- 
bow. Parhelia, or mock suns, frequently adorned 
with these accompaniments, shine at once in different 
quarters of the firmament. Ellis, who was with 
Moor and Smith to Hudson's Bay, has seen six in 
one sky. They are most brilliant at daybreak, dimi- 
nish in lustre as the real sun ascends, but again 
brighten at his setting. The sun himself, for some 
time before he finally departs for the winter, and also 
after his reappearance in spring, tinges the sky with 
hues of matchless brilliancy. The edges of the 
Clouds near that luminary often present a fiery or 
burnished appearance, while the opposite horizon 
glows with a deep purple, gradually softening as it 
ascends into a delicate rose-colour of inconceivable 
beauty. As the solar orb at these periods never 
rises more than a few degrees above the horizon, he 
is, as it were, in a state of permanent rising and set- 
ting, and seems to exliibit longer and more variously 
the beautiful appearances arising out of that position. 
At this time the naked eye can view him without 
being dazzled; and Captain Lyon considers the 
softened blush-colour, which his rays exhibit through 
frost, as possessing a charm which surpasses even 
that of an Italian sky. 

Amid all these resources, the monotony of the 
acene was beginning to be oppressive, when it was 
relieved by an unexpected incident, which attracted 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 233 

universal attention. On the morning of the 1st 
February, a number of distant figures were seen 
moving over the ice, and, when they were viewed 
through glasses, the cry was raised, " Esquimaux ! 
Esquimaux !" As it was of great importance to deal 
' courteously and discreetly with these strangers, the 
two commanders formed a party of six, who walked 
in files behind each other, that they might cause no 
alarm. Tlie Esquimaux then formed themselves 
into a line of twenty-one, advanced slowly, and at 
length made a full stop. In this order they saluted 
the strangers by the usual movement of beating their 
breasts. They Avere substantially clothed in rich 
and dark deer-skins, and appeared a much more quiet 
and orderly race than their rude countrymen of the 
Savage Islands. On the English producing their 
precious commodities, knives, nails, and needles, an 
active traffic was set on foot ; and the females, on 
seeing that much importance was attached to the 
skins which formed their clothing, began immediately 
to strip off those with which their fair persons were 
covered. The captains felt alarm for the conse- 
quences, under a temperature more than fifty degrees 
below the freezing point; but were soon consoled 
by discerning underneath another comfortable suit. 
They were now cordially invited to enter their habita- 
tions, to which they agreed most readily, only that 
there appeared no habitations to enter. However, 
they were led to a hole in the snow, and instructed 
to place themselves on their hands and knees, in 
which position, having crept through a long winding 
passage, they arrived at a little hall with a dome- 
shaped roof, whence doors opened into three apart- 
ments, each occupied by a separate family. These 
proved to be five distinct mansions, tenanted by 
sixty-four men, women, and children. The mate- 
rials and structure of these abodes were still more 
singular than their position. Snow, the chief pro- 
duct of the northern tempests, became here a pix)- 
U2 



234 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES, 

tection against its own cold. It was formed inlj 
curved slabs of about two feet long and half a foot 
thick, put together by a most judicious masonry, so 
as to present a species of dome-shaped structuree, 
rising six or seven feet above the ground, and about 
fourteen or sixteen feet in diameter. The mode of 
inserting the key-slab, which bound the whole toge- 
ther, would, it is said, have been satisfactory to the 
eye of a regularly-bred artist. A plate of ice in the 
roof served as a window, and admitted the light as 
through ground glass ; which, when it shone on the 
interior mansions, in their first state of pure and 
beautiful transparency, produced soft and ghttering 
tints of green and blue. But, alas ! ere long, accu- 
mulated dirt, smoke, and offal, converted these apart- 
ments into a scene of blackness and stench. This 
little village appeared at first like a cluster of hillocks 
amid the snow; but successive falls filled up the 
vacuities, and converted it almost into a smooth sur- 
face, so that even boys and dogs were seen walking 
and sporting over the roofs ; though, as summer and 
thaw advanced, a leg sometimes penetrated, and 
appeared to the alanned inmates below. Then, too, 
the ceiling begins to drip ; and the tenants, after re- 
peatedly endeavouring to patch it with fresh slabs, 
and catching, of course, some severe colds, are obliged 
to betake themselves to a more durable covering. In 
each room, suspended from the roof, burns a lamp, 
with a long wick formed of a peculiar species of 
moss, fed with the oil of the seal or the walrus, and 
serving at once for light, heat, and cookery. The 
family sit round the apartment, on a bench formed 
of snow, strewed with slender twigs and covered 
with skins ; but this part of the dwelling must be 
carefully kept a good deal below the freezing-point, 
since a higher temperature would speedily dissolve 
the walls of the frail tenement. 

After a cheerful and friendly visit, an invitation, 
was given to the Esquimaux to repair to the ships^ 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 235 

when fifty accepted it with alacrity. Partly walk- 
ing-, and partly dancing, they soon reached the ves- 
sels, where a striking congeniality of spirit was soon 
found to exist between them and the sailors; bois- 
terous fun forming to each the chief source of en- 
joyment. A fiddle and drum being produced, the 
natives struck up a dance, or rather a succession of 
vehement leaps, accompanied with loud shouts and 
yells. Seeing the Kabloonas or Whites, as they 
called the strangers, engaged in the game of leap-frog, 
they attempted to join ; but not duly understanding 
how to measure their movements, they made such 
over-leaps as sometimes to pitch on the crown of their 
heads : however they sprang up quite unconcerned. 
Their attention was specially attracted to the effects 
of a winch, by which one sailor forcibly drew to- 
wards him a party of ten or twelve of their number, 
though grinning and straining every nerve in resist- 
ance ; but finding all in vain, they joined in the burst 
of good-humoured laughter till tears streamed from 
their eyes. One intelligent old man followed Cap- 
tain Lyon to the cabin, and viewed with rational 
^surprise various objects which were presented. The 
performance of a hand-organ and a musical snuff-box 
struck him with breathless admiration ; and on see- 
ing drawings of the Esquimaux in Hudson's Strait, 
he soon understood them, and showed the difference 
between their dress and appearance and that of his 
own tribe. On seeing the sketch of a bear, he raised 
a loud cry, drew up his sleeves, and showed the scars 
of three deep wounds received in encounters with 
that terrible animal. The seamen sought to treat 
their visiters to such delicacies as their ship afforded, 
but were for some time at a loss to discover how their 
palate might be gratified. Grog, the seaman's 
choicest luxury, only one old woman could be in- 
duced to taste. Sugar, sweetmeats, gingerbread, 
were accepted only out of complaisance, and eaten 
with manifest disgust ; but train-oil, entrails of ani- 



2B6 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

mals, and any thing consisting of pure fat or grease, 
were swallowed in immense quantities, and with 
symptoms of exquisite delight. This taste was first 
evinced by an old woman, who, having sold her oil- 
pot, took care previously to empty the content* into 
her stomach, and lick it clean with her tongue, re- 
gardless of her face becoming thus as black as soot. 
Captain Lyon, being disposed to ingratiate himself 
with rather a handsome young damsel, presented her 
with a good moulded candle, six in the pound. She 
immediately began to eat off the tallow with eveiy 
symptom of the greatest enjoyment, after which she 
thrust the wick into her mouth; but the Captain, 
concerned for the consequences to this delicate 
virgin, insisted on pulling it out. In preference to 
strong liquors they drank water in the most enor- 
mous quantities, by gallons at a time, and two quarts 
at a draught ; a supply of liquid which is perhaps ne- 
cessary to dissolve their gross food, and which, being 
obtained only from snow artificially melted, is a scarce 
winter article. 

The Esquimaux were attended by a large pack of 
wolves, which seemed to follow solely to pick up 
whatever might be found straggling or defenceless 
about their habitation. These animals continued 
through the whole winter ravening with hunger, and 
in eager watch for any victim which might come 
within their reach. For this purpose they took a sta- 
tion between the huts and the ships, ready to act 
against either as circumstances might dictate. They 
did not attack the sailors even when unarmed, though 
they were often seen hovering through the gloom in 
search of prey. Every stray dog was seized, and in 
a few minutes devoured. Two wolves broke into 
a snow-house close to the ship, and carried off each 
a dog larger than himself; but, being pursued, one 
of them was obliged to drop his booty. In the ex- 
tremity of their hunger they hesitated not to tear 
and devour the cables and canvass found lying near 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 237 

the vessel. A deadly war was therefore waged agahist 
these fierce animals, of which thirteen were killed 
in the course of the season, and sent to be eaten by 
the Esqiiiniaax, — a present which was received with 
much satisfaction. 

As spring advanced, the attention of the officers 
was almost wholly engrossed by the prospects of 
navigation and discovery during the approaching 
summer. Their Esquimaux neighbours by no means 
destitute of intelligence, and accustomed to shift 
continually from place to place, were found to have 
acquired a very extensive knowledge of the seas and 
coasts of this part of America. One female, in par- 
ticular, named Iligliuk, who bore even among her 
countrymen the character of a " wise woman," was, 
after a little instruction, enabled to convey to the 
strangers the outlines of her geographical knowledge, 
in the form of a rude map. A pencil being put into 
her hand, she traced the shore from Repulse Bay 
with such a tolerable measure of accuracy as in- 
spired great confidence in what she might farther de- 
lineate. Iligliuk then began to exhibit a coast 
reaching far to the north, being, in fact, the eastern 
limits of Melville peninsula. Next her pencil took 
a westward direction, when her farther progress was 
watched with the deepest interest ; upon which she 
was seen tracing a strait between opposite lands, 
that extended westward till it opened on each side, 
and spread into an, apparently unbounded ocean. 
This delineation, which promised to fulfil their most 
sanguine hopes, gratified the oflicers beyond mea- 
sure, and they loaded Iligliuk with attentions which 
unluckily soon turned her head, and made her so 
conceited and disdainful that they were obliged to 
discontinue their notice of her. 

Captain Lyon, in the middle of March, undertook 
a journey across a piece of land, lying between the 
station of the ships and the continent, which had 
been named Winter Island. The party were scarcely 



238 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

gone when they encountered a heavy gale, bringing 
with it clouds of drift, with a cold so intense, that 
they could not stop for a moment without having 
their faces covered with frost-bites. After some 
vain struggles they determined to pitch their tent ; 
but as the temperature within was at zero, and was 
continually lowering, they felt that they could not 
live through the night under this shelter. They 
therefore dug a cave in the earth, and by huddling 
together round a fire, immersed in smoke, to which 
no vent was allowed, contrived to keep up a degree 
of warmth, though still ten or fifteen degrees below 
the freezing point. In the morning their sledge was 
too deeply buried beneath the drift to leave any hope 
of digging it out, and they could reach the ships, 
now six miles distant, only by proceeding on foot 
through a tempest of snow falling so thick that they 
could not see a yard before them. Finding some- 
times no track, sometimes several leading in different 
directions, they were soon bewildered, and wandered 
they knew not where among heavy hummocks of 
ice. The frost-bites were so numerous that they 
could not muster hands enough to rub the parts 
affected, and some began to sink into that dreadful 
insensibility which is the prelude to death by cold, 
and to reel about like drunken men. Thus they had 
resigned almost every hope of deliverance, when 
providentially there appeared a new beaten track, 
which they determined to follow, and in ten minutes 
it led them to the ships. Theii arrival there caused 
indescribable joy, as they had been nearly given up 
for lost, while no party could be sent in search of 
them without imminent risk of sharing their fate. 

On the 8th May, in a more favourable season, 
Captain Lyon undertook another journey. In a few 
hours he crossed Winter Island, and reached the 
strait separating it from the continent, covered with 
heavy-grounded ice very difficult to walk upon. The 
8un. now powerful, produced such a glare on the 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 239 

snow as affected several of the party with severe 
bUndness ; while the only means of procuring water 
was b}^ holding up plates of ice in the solar rays, by 
which they were gradually melted. The party, hav- 
mg reached the mainland, proceeded a considerable 
way along the coast, crossing several bays upon the 
ice ; but at last they came in view of a bold cape, 
which they fondly and vainly hoped was the extreme 
point of America. Here they were overtaken by a 
storm of snow, but not accompanied, like the former, 
with perilous cold ; it melted as it fell, and formed a 
pulp which penetrated into their tents, yet did not 
dissolve so completely as to be fit for drinking. This 
storm kept them imprisoned for sixty-eight hours ; 
which dreary interval they enlivened by reading in 
turn from three books they chanced to have with 
them, and as soon as the sun began to gleam they 
hastened to return to the ships. 

The end of May presented a gloomy aspect, the 
season being still more backward than in the more 
northerly and rigorous climate of Melville* Island. 
The snow was dissolved only on some spots, and 
hardly any symptoms of vegetation were yet visible ; 
but as there was an extent of open water in the sea 
without, Captain Parry determined upon sawing his 
way through to it. This was a most laborious pro- 
cess, the ice being much thicker and stronger than 
at the commencement of the season ; and after the 
seamen had continued at it more than a fortnight, 
and were within forty-eight hours of completing a 
canal, the body of the ice made a movement which 
closed it entirely up. As they were looking on in 
despair at this disaster, another passage opened, 
which they attempted to render available. I'his too 
was closed in the same manner ; but these agitations 
had at last the effect of causing the whole mass to 
float out into the open sea, and thus leaving to them 
an unobstructed passage. 

On the 2d July the ships began their career of 



240 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

discovery. They had a favourable run through this 
sea, which formed a continuation of Fox's Channel ; 
but a strong current from the north was bringing 
down the masses of ice with great force. The Hecla 
underwent some severe pressures, and, within five or 
six hundred yards of the Fury, two large floes 
dashed against each other with such a tremen- 
dous concussion, that numberless huge masses were 
thrown fifty or sixty feet into the air. The vessel, 
had she come for a moment within the sphere of 
these movements, must have been dashed to pieces, — 
happily, she escaped. This current, however, was 
highly promising, since it could not be traced to the 
mouth of Hudson's Straits, but must have come from 
the western ocean which they were so anxious to 
reach. 

The ice passed by, and the ships proceeded with a 
favouring wind and tide. The shores began now ta 
put on their summer aspect ; the snow had nearly 
disappeared ; and the ground was covered with the 
richest bloom of Arctic vegetation. The expedition 
came to a fine river named Barrow, which formed a 
most picturesque fall down rocks richly fringed with 
very brilliant plants. Here the reindeer sporting, 
the eider-duck, the golden plover, and tlie snow- 
bunting, spreading their wings, produced a gay and 
delightful scene. On the 14th the navigators reached 
the island of Amitioke, which had been described as 
situated near the strait they were then endeavoming 
to reach. They saw about two hundred walruses 
lying piled, as usual, over each other on the loose 
drift-ice. A boat's crew from each ship proceeded 
to the attack ; but these gallant amphibia, some with 
their cubs mounted on their backs, made the most 
desperate resistance, and one of them tore the planks 
of a boat in two or three places. Three only were 
killed, the flesh of which was found tolerable, afford- 
ing a variety amid the ordinary sea-diet. 

The discoverers now proceeded northwards, and 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 241 

saw before them a bold and high range of coast, se- 
parated apparently from that along which they were 
sailing. This feature agreeing with the indications 
of the fair Iligliuk, flattered them that they were 
approaching the strait exhibited by her as forming 
the entrance into the Polar basin. They pushed on 
full of hope and animation, and were farther cheered 
by reaching the small island of Igloolik, which she 
had described as situated at the very commencement 
of the passage. Accordingly they soon saw the strait 
stretching westward before them in long perspec- 
tive ; but, alas ! they discovered at the same moment 
an unbroken sheet of ice from shore to shore, cross- 
ing and blocking up the passage ; and this not a loose 
accidental floe, but the ice of the preceding winter, 
on which the midsummer sun had not produced the 
slightest change. Unable to advance a single step, 
they atnused themselves with land-excursions in 
different directions; and Captain Parry at length 
determined, on the 14th August, with a party of six, 
to undertake an expedition along the frozen surface 
of the strait. The journey was very laborious, the 
ice being sometimes thrown up in rugged hummocks, 
and occasionally leaving large spaces of open water, 
which it was necessary to cross on a plank, or on 
pieces of ice instead of boats. In four days they 
came in view of a peninsula terminated by a bold 
cape, the approach to which was guarded by succes- 
sive ranges of strata, resembling the tiers or galleries 
of a high and commanding fortification. The party, 
however, scrambled to the summit, whence they 
enjoyed a most gratifying spectacle. They were at 
the narrowest part of the strait, here about two miles 
across, with a tide or current running through it at 
the rate of two miles an hour. Westward the shores 
on each side receded, till, for three points of the 
compass and amid a clear horizon, no land was 
visible. The captain doubted not that from this po- 
sition he beheld the Polar sea ; into which, notwith- 
X 



^42 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

Standing the formidable barriers of ice which inter-* 
vened, he cherished the most sanguine hopes of 
forcing his way. He named this the strait of the 
Fury and Hecla, and gave the sailors an extra can 
of grog, to drink a safe and speedy passage through 
its channel. 

Captain Parry now lost no time in returning to the 
ships, where his arrival was joyful and seasonable ; 
for the opposing barrier, which had been gradually 
softening and breaking into various rents and fissures, 
at once almost entirely disappeared, and the vessels 
next morning were in open water. On the 21st 
they got under way ; and, though retarded by fogs 
and other obstructions, had arrived on the 26th at 
that central and narrowest channel which the com- 
mander had formerly reached. A brisk breeze now 
sprang up, the sky cleared, they dashed across a cur- 
rent of three or four knots an hour, and sanguinely 
hoped for an entire success, which would compensate 
so many delays and disappointments. Suddenly, 
from the crow's nest above, it was announced that 
ice, in a continuous and impenetrable field, unmoved 
from its winter station, occupied the whole breadth 
of the channel. In an hour they reached this barrier, 
which they found soft, porous, and what is termed 
rotten. Spreading all their canvass, they bore down 
upon it, and actually forced their way through a 
space of three or four hundred yards ; but there they 
stuck, and found their progress arrested by a fixed 
and impenetrable mass. From this point, during the 
whole season, the ships were unable to advance a 
single step. Nor had the crews any means of ex- 
erting their activity except in land-journeys. Cap- 
tain Lyon undertook an expedition southward, to, 
ascertain if any inlet or passage from sea to sea in 
this direction had escaped notice. The country, 
however, was so filled with rugged and rocky hills, 
some a thousand feet high, and with chains of lakes 
in which much ice was floating, that he could not pro- 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 243 

ceed above seven miles. Though it was the begin- 
ning of September, the season was only that of early 
sprmg; and the buds of the poppy and saxifrage 
were just unfolding, to be prematurely nipped by the 
fast-approaching winter. 

More satisfactory information was derived from 
another excursion made by Messrs. Reid and Bush« 
man, who penetrated sixty miles westward along 
the southern coast of Cockburn Island, till they 
reached a pinnacle, whence they saw, Ijeyond all 
doubt, the Polar ocean spreading its boundless ex- 
panse before them ; but tremendous barriers of ice 
filled the strait, and precluded all approach towards 
that great and desired object. 

It was now the middle of September, and the 
usual symptoms, of deer trooping in herds southward, 
floating pieces of ice consolidating into masses, and 
the thin pancake crust forming on the surface of the 
waters, reminded the mariners, not only that they 
could hope for no farther removal of the obstacles 
which arrested their progress, but that they must 
lose no time in providing winter-quarters. The 
middle of the strait, at the spot where they had been 
first stopped, occurred as the station whence they 
would be most likely to push future discovery ; but 
prudence suggested a doubt, whether the ships, en- 
closed in this icy prison with such strong barriers on 
«^ach side, might ever be able to effect their extrica- 
tion. It appeared, at all events, a serious considera- 
tion, that they might be shut up here for eleven 
months, surrounded by rocks and ice, amid the pri- 
vations of an Arctic winter. By returning to Igloo- 
lik, they would be ready to catch the earliest open- 
ing, which was expected to take place on the east- 
ern side, from whence a few days would then bring 
them to their present station. 

Oji the 30th October, by the usual operation of 
sawing, the ships were established in a harbour at 
Igloolik. The ensuing season was passed with the 



244 REOENT ^ORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

most careful attention to the health and comfort of 
the crews ; but though their spirits did sink, there 
appears to have been, on the whole, less of a^ayety and 
lightness of heart than in the two former winterings. 
We hear nothing of the drama or even of the school. 
In this position, north of Winter Island, they were 
deprived for about seven weeks of the sun's cheering 
beams. On the 2d December refraction still show^ed, 
from the deck of the Fury, about the sixteenth part 
of his disk. About the new year, Arciurus and Ca- 
pella, stars of the first magnitude, were visible for 
naif an hour before and after midday. On the 5th 
January (1823), the horizon was so brightly suf- 
fused with red, that they hoped ere long to see the 
sun's orb burst forth ; but a fortnight of thick fog 
occasioned a disappointment. On the 19th, the sky 
having cleared, they saw him rise, attended by two 
parhelia, and both crews turned out to enjoy the 
novelty and splendour of this cheering spectacle. 

The sailors found at Igloolik a colony of Esqui- 
maux, who received them at first with surprise and 
some degree of alarm ; but, on learning they were 
from Winter Island and intimate with its tenants of 
last season, they hailed them at once as familiar 
acquaintances. These natives belonged to the same 
tribe, and were connected by alliance and close 
relationship with many individuals of the Winter 
Island party; of whom, therefore, they were de- 
lighted to receive tidings. The crews spent the 
winter with them on quite a friendly footing, and 
rendered important services to them during a period 
of severe sickness. This intercourse, however, was 
not on the whole nearly so satisfactory as in the 
former place and season. It began to be observed, 
that their attachment to the Kabloonas was greatly 
prompted by interest and by the hope of extracting 
presents ; that they begged for food and gifts almost 
without intermission, and yet showed no gratitude 
on receiving them ; taking much less into considera- 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 245 

tion what they themselves got, than what others got 
more than they. The indifference shown towards 
such of their own tribe as were in a debilitated and 
suffering state was viewed also with much dissatis- 
faction. Kagha, a widow, cursed certainly with a 
most frightful temper, was found almost perishing 
through neglect. Captain Lyon took her into his 
own cabin, where, however, her filth and scolding 
made her a perfect nuisance; so that, after being 
recruited and clothed in two folds of deer-skin, she 
was remanded to the huts. Ten days after she was 
found at the point of death, solely, it appeared, 
through want of food ; and though removed imme- 
diately to the ship's hospital, she died next day. 
Our people were also much displeased at the stoical 
firmness with which the relations received notice 
of two of their deceased kindred, whom the dogs 
had dug up from under the snow, that formed their 
only covering, and had devoured. It was indeed 
very difficult to find an earthy grave beneath the 
glebe, now frozen as hard as rock ; but an Esqui- 
maux acquaintance having lost his wife, the sailors 
piled over her such a heap of stones as might defy 
Ihe attempts of all the animals, wild and tame, 
\\rhich prowl throughout this dreary region. The 
man gave thanks, but not cordially ; he even ex- 
pressed a dread lest the pressure of this huge pile 
would be painfully felt by his deceased spouse ; and 
soon after, when an infant died, he declared her 
wholly incapable of bearing such a burden, and 
would allow nothing but snow to be laid over her. 
The Esquimaux, during this expedition, became 
the subjects of a more minute observation than had 
ever before been made upon them by Europeans. 
They constitute a most widely diffused race, occu- 
pying all the shores of the Northern Ocean, and 
embracing nearly the entire circuit of the globe. 
Richardson and Franklin found them along the whole 
coast of the American Polar sea; Kotzebue in the 
X2 



246 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

channel near Behring's Straits. The Samoiedes 
and Kamtchadales, in northern Asia, seem to belong 
to the same family, A similarity of visage and figure, 
boats, huts, and instruments, — even a resemblance 
in habits, character, and mode of life, — might have 
been produced by the common pressure of the same 
very peculiar outward circumstances. The aflinity 
of speech, however, which is such as proves the dia- 
lects of all the Esquimaux to be mere varieties of 
one common language, affords a clear proof, that an 
original race from some one quarter has spread over 
the whole range of those immense and desolate 
shores. This migration must have been facilitated 
by the vast continuity of coast which stretches along 
the Arctic Ocean, and which is not equalled in any 
other quarter. Hence, probably, the Esquimaux, at 
distant ages, connected the old and the new conti- 
nents, which at all other points were then wholly 
unknown to each other. 

The external form of that people seems influenced, 
and, as it were, characterized by the severity of the 
climate. Their stature is decidedly lower than that 
of the European ; five feet nine inches being con- 
sidered even in a man as almost gigantic. Though 
the trunk of the body is somewhat thick, all the ex- 
tremities are small, especially the hands and feet, and 
the fingers short. The face is broad and flat, the 
nose small, and at the same time sunk so deep, that 
in some instances a ruler could be applied from cheek 
to cheek without touching it. It is somewhere ob- 
served, that their visage presents that peculiar form 
which the human face naturally assumes under ex- 
posure to intense cold, when all the projecting fea- 
tures are drawn in and the cheeks consequently 
pushed out. In the same way exposure to the 
weather may perhaps produce the high cheek-bones 
of mountaineers. Under these modifications, how- 
ever, both their body and limbs are very tolerably 
shaped. Even the female countenance, though with- 




Group of £8qttimai2x.--[p. 246.] 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 247 

out pretensions to regular beauty, is often agreeable, 
with a frank and good-humoured expression ; so that, 
were it cleared of the thick crust of grease and dirt, 
so as to exhibit the real complexion, which is only 
that of a deep brunette, it might, even in Europe, be 
reckoned handsome. The skin is unctuous and un- 
pleasantly cold to the touch ; the flesh soft and flabby, 
owing probably to the fat animal substances which 
form the principal part of their food. 

Dress, through the necessity imposed by the cli- 
mate, is much more ample, and prepared with greater 
care, than is usual among other savage tribes. That 
of the men chiefly consists in a double coat of deer- 
skin ; the inner part of which, having the hair placed 
next the body, serves as a shirt, while from the outer 
a spacious hood is raised to cover the head. The 
breeches, of the same material, and also double, reach 
down, overlapping the boots, which extend to the 
knee, and are composed either of deer-skin, or, if 
intended for hunting and travelling, of the hide of 
the seal and walrus. The dress of the females con- 
sists of the same particulars, with only some varia- 
tions in form. They considered themselves particu- 
larly fortunate in wearing breeches, and could not 
hear without pity of their sisters in Europe, whom 
the caprice of fashion had deprived of so comfortable 
a habiliment. Their chief distinction lay in their 
boots, framed of such capacious dimensions as to 
make each leg appear as thick as the body, and allow 
them to move only in a waddling gait, similar to 
that of Muscovy ducks. Thiese boots form, however, 
most spacious receptacles for whatever goods, law- 
ful or unlawful, may come into the possession of the 
fair wearer. Captain Parry suspects that this huge 
buskin was originally constructed as a receptacle 
for their children, — a practice still prevalent among 
some tribes, — and thus retains its old form, though 
the hood is now generally substituted for this do- 
mestic purpose. 



248 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

The Esquimaux do not huddle on these g-arments 
in a rude and careless manner, as a mere protection 
against tlie fierce influence of the climate : they dis- 
play, like other ravages, a passion for embellishment 
and finery. Their clothes are neatly sewed with 
threads made from the sinews of animals ; the eifect 
of their rich furs is heightened by being arranged in 
stripes of various colours, and by fringes along the 
border, adjusted often with considerable taste. They 
sought anxiously for beads, in lieu of which they 
had ornamented themselves with girdles composed 
of the teeth of the fox, wolf, or musk-ox, and one 
female had fringed her jacket with a long row of 
foxes' noses. It was suspected that these ornaments 
might be regarded in some degree under the charac- 
ter of amulets or charms. Nor do the Esquimaux 
omit that universal ornament of savages, the painting 
of the human skin. This is executed not by the 
Indian process of puncturing, but by a species of 
sewing. The women draw under the epidermis a 
needle, with a thread dipped in lamp-black and oil, 
which being taken out, and pressure applied to the 
part, leaves behind it a permanent olive tint. This 
operation, when performed with complete success, 
does not draw blood ; but the execution is seldom 
carried to that degree of perfection. The face, arms, 
thighs, and sometimes the breasts of the females, 
are profusely covered with this artificial tint. 

The labour necessary for subsistence under this 
rigorous climate is more arduous, and occupies a 
greater share of time, than among any other race, 
either civilized or savage. The ground, frozen for 
more than nine months of the year, yields neither 
root nor herb which can form a standard article of 
food. No tame animals are reared for this purpose, 
their dogs being so applied only in the last extremity. 
Hunting is their only resource ; and hence their days 
are spent in the chase of the wild animals which m- 
habit the sea and the shore. They lead thus a life 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 



249 



of contrivance and adventure, in the course of which 
energy and hardihood of character are formed, and 
many faculties amply developed. In the absence oi 
extreme scarcity of wood and iron, they make use 
of the bones of animals, which they have of al) 
shapes and sizes, yet this is often found too inflexible- 
a material ; while cord or line is formed by cutting 
their toughest and most elastic skins into long stripes. 
During the short summer, they pursue with bow and 
arrow the deer, whose flesh as meat, and whose skin 
as clothing, are esteemed above all others. The eider 
and other ducks also furnish them with food ; while 
the hide, with the feathers inwards, forms a light and 
comfortable clothing. The early winter, however, 
compels these animals, in large bands, to move into 
more genial climes ; and hence, for nine months an- 
nually, their food must be found in the waters. These, 
indeed, are filled with the large cetaceous fishes, the 
seal, the walrus, and even the whale ; but the hunters 
and the game are separated by a thick covering of 
ice. These animals, however, though they make 
their chief dwelling beneath the waves, as formerly 
observed^ experience the necessity of ascending from 




250 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

time to time for the purposes of respiration. At such 
moments the Esquimaux watch with the most in- 
defatigable patience, often erecting a little snow-shed 
to protect them from the cold ; and the instant the 
animal appears, strike into him a dart or harpoon, 
of which they have several forms and sizes, and 
sometimes throw by means of a long line, a neces- 
sary part of their apparatus. Their grandest achieve- 
ment, however, consists in the attack of the whale ; 
on which occasion a large body of them unite, armed 
with a variety of weapons. When struck he instantly 
plunges into the water ; but, being obliged to come 
up at short intervals, is always attacked afresh, till, 
overcome by fatigue and loss of blood, this mighty 
monarch of the deep remains an unresisting prey. 
An Esquimaux does not hesitate, even singly, to at- 
tack the Polar bear, the fiercest and most terrible of 
all the Arctic races. In this encounter, however, 
he must be aided by a band of his trusty dogs, which 
rush fearlessly on, keep the animal at bay, and assail 
him on all sides; while the master advances with 
his spear, and avoiding, with almost preternatural 
agility, the furious springs of the enraged monster, 
pierces him with repeated strokes. Nooses, springes, 
and traps are also used with skill, chiefly against 
birds and foxes. 

The Esquimaux show little prudence in the manage- 
ment of their supplies. The instant that tidings 
transpire of the capture of a walrus, shouts of ex- 
ultation are raised through the village ; as its inhabit- 
ants share the prize in common. On its arrival, 
slices are instantly cut out, every lamp is supplied 
with oil, the houses are in a blaze ; all the pots are 
filled with flesh, and the women, while cooking, pick 
out and devour the most dainty morsels. The feast 
prepared, one man takes up a large piece, applies it 
to his mouth, and severs with his teetli as much as 
that cavity can possibly admit ; then hands it to his 
neigljbour, and he to the next, till all is consumed* 



ilECENT NOUfH-WEST VOYAGES. 251 

A new piece is then supplied, and thus the process 
continues, almost without intermission, till the ani* 
mal is entirely consumed. To the capacity of Es- 
quimaux stomachs there seems scarcely any limit. 
Some experiments on the subject, made in the Fury, 
and carefully noted, produced the most surprising re- 
sults. A youth named Toolooak stands recorded as 
having, in twenty-one hours, received into his sto- 
mach ten pounds four ounces of solid food, a gallon 
and a pint of water, with more than a pint of soup. 
Captain Lyon pitched against him Kan gar a, who in 
nineteen hours finished nine pounds fifteen ounces of 
solid, and a gallon and a half of fluid. At this rate, 
the most ample store very speedily disappears ; one 
day they are labouring under fever, hemorrhage, and 
all the maladies incident to repletion ; a few days 
after they are without a morsel to eat. 

Considered as to their intellectual condition, the 
Esquimaux have not the least tincture of what goes 
by the name of learning; can form no abstract 
ideas ; nor count above ten, the number of their 
fingers. Yet, amid a life somewhat varied and 
eventful, many faculties, without any artificial cul- 
ture, are spontaneously developed. We have seen 
the skill displayed in the construction of their houses, 
as well as in pursuing and killing the various te- 
nants of the earth and of the waters, on which their 
subsistence depends. Their migratory habits give 
them a considerable extent of local and geographi- 
cal knowledge, which they are even in a certain de- 
gree able to systematize and delineate. They are 
also shrewd and intelligent in all the aftairs of com- 
mon life, and possess a considerable talent for humour 
and mimicry. 

In their moral qualities, the Esquimaux, or at least 
this particular tribe, present much that is worthy of 
commendation. At the first opening of the inter- 
course, the most undeviating honesty marked all 
their conduct, though this quality, in the course of 



252 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

two winters' communication, was considerably under- 
mined. They were exposed, indeed, to most severe 
temptation, by seeing constantly scattered about the 
ships little planks, pieces of iron, and empty tin pots, 
which was to them as if the decks had been strewed 
with gold and jewels. It also came to their know- 
ledge, that, in some of their early exchanges, rich 
skins had been bartered for beads, and other trifles* 
of no real value, — a system against which they ex- 
claimed as absolute robbery. From first to last the 
virtue now mentioned was practised among them- 
selves in a manner worthy of the golden age. Their 
dresses, sledges, and all their implements of hunting 
and fishing, were left exposed inside or outside of 
the huts, without any instance being known of their 
having been carried off. Property, without the aid 
3f laws and tribunals, was in the most perfect security. 
The common right to the products of the chase 
marks also a singular union, without seeming to re- 
lax their diligence in search of food, though it may 
perhaps contribute to their very thoughtless consump- 
tion of it. The navigators admit that they were re- 
ceived with the most cordial hospitality into the lit- 
tle huts, where the best meat was set before them, 
and the women vied with each other in the atten- 
tions of cooking, drying, and mending their clothes. 
" The women working and singing, their husbands 
quietly mending their lines, the children playing be- 
fore the door, and the pot boiling over the blaze of a 
cheerful lamp," gave a pleasing picture of savage life. 
Y'et a continued intercourse showed that the Esqui- 
maux inherited their full share of human frailty. 
Begging we shall pass over, though in many in- 
stances persevering and incessant, because it seems 
to have been called forth almost entirely by their 
connexion with our countiymen, and by too lavish 
presents at the first ; while their little bursts of envy 
appear to have flowed from the same source. But 
the fair Esquimaux are charged with a strong pro- 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 253 

pensity to slander and detraction, which were as 
busy among them, as they sat in circles round the 
door mending their lines, as in the most fashionable 
drawing-rooms. Their own conduct, meantime, is 
said to have afforded the most ample scope for cen- 
sure, especially in regard to connubial fidelity; and yet 
when it is admitted that these faults were carefully 
concealed, and much outward decorum observed, and 
that the propensity to calumny often led the natives 
beyond the strict limits of truth, we doubt whether 
too implicit reliance may not have been placed on the 
scandalous chronicle of the frozen regions. The 
natives certainly do appear to display a peculiar apa- 
thy in regard to the sufferings and even the death of 
neighbours and relations. Widows, and the aged 
and infirm, if they have not children of their own, 
experience the greatest indifference. In times of 
plenty, indeed, they share in the general abundance 
of food ; but during scarcity a veiy small quan- 
tity reaches them, and, receiving no attendance 
in their sickness, they often perish through pure 
want and neglect. The children are treated with 
extreme tenderness ; though the practice of adop- 
tion, which prevails most extensively, and which 
establishes in full force between the parties the ties 
of father and child, is practised with regard to boys 
only, and seemingly with the view that they may 
contribute to support the old age of their factitious 
parents. 

The religious ideas of the Esquimaux, though they 
cannot be dignified with any better name than su- 
perstition, are not much more absurd than the popular 
creed of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Their 
principal deity is Aywillaiyoo, a female, immensely 
tall, with only the left eye, wearing a pigtail, reach- 
ing to her knee, so thick that it can scarcely be grasped 
by both hands. Captain Lyon witnessed a mighty 
incantation, in which Toolemak, the chief magician, 
summoned Aywillaiyoo to the upper world to utter 



25'4 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGESi 

her oracles. The party were assembled in a hntr 
where light after light was put out, till they were left 
ill total darkness. Toolemak, then, after loud invo*- 
cations, professed to descend to the world below to 
bring up the goddess. Soon there arose alow chant 
of peculiar sound, imagined to be the voice of Ay wil^ 
laiyoo. During half an hour, in reply to the loud 
screams and questions of her votaries, she uttered 
dubious and mystical responses;, after which the 
sound died away, and she was supposed to descend 
beneath the earth, when Toolemak , with a shout, an- 
nounced his own return ta the upper world. The 
magician however, being soon after on board a Bri- 
tish ship, was treated with nine glasses of hot water 
(brandy), under the influence of which he began to 
act over again his enchantments, when it appeared, 
that by varying modes of applying the hand or jacket 
to the mouth, he produced those changeful and mys- 
terious sounds whicb had passed for the words of 
Aywillaiyoo. This divinity has for her father 
a giant with one arm. The Esquimaux pan- 
theon comprises, moreover, Pamiooli, a spirit fre- 
quently invoked, and a large bear, whose dwelling 
is in the middle of the ice, and who frequently 
holds converse with mankind. The natives believe 
also in a future world, the employments and plea- 
sures of which, according to the usual creed of 
savage races, are all sensuaL The soul descends 
beneath the earth through successive abodes, the 
first of which has somewhat of the nature of pur- 
gatory; but the good spirits passing through it 
find the other mansions successively improve, till 
they reach that of perfect bliss, far beneath, where 
the sun never sets, and where, by the side of large 
lakes that never freeze, the deer roam in vast 
herds, and the seal and walrus always abound in the 
waters. 

We now return to the progress of the expedition. 
Tlie spring was singularly unfavourable. Captaiii!i 



RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. ^51 

liyon attempted to penetrate across Melville Penin- 
«ula, but found the route so rug-ged and so barred by- 
steep chains of mountains, that he was obliged to re- 
turn in nineteen days without any discovery, except 
of two rapid rivers falling into the sea near Igloolik. 
Lieutenant Hoppner accompanied a party of Esqui- 
maux to Cockburn Island, but could not penetrate to 
any distance inland. It was the 7th of August before 
they were able, by severe sawing, to reach the open 
sea ; by which time Captain Parry had renounced the 
hope of effecting any thing important during the short 
remnant of this season. He formed, however, a very 
bold plan, which was to bring all the stores of the 
other vessel on board the Fury, and with it alone to 
brave a third winter in the Polar regions, hoping that 
the succeeding summer might be more propitious. 
But as he was preparing to carry this too daring pro- 
ject into effect, a report was made that symptoms of 
$>curvy had broken out on several of the crew, whose 
physical strength appeared to be generally impaired 
by the two hard winters through which they had 
passed. This left no choice; and, in compliance 
with the general opinion of his officers. Captain Parry 
t)egan his voyage homeward. The ships were drifted 
about in a stormy sea covered with ice for twenty- 
four days ; but, being at last favoured with a west- 
erly breeze, they crossed the Atlantic, and on the 
10th of October, 1823, arrived in Brassa Sound, 
■Shetland. After two successive years thus passed in 
the depths of the frozen world, whence not the 
faintest rumour of the expedition had reached Britain, 
its members were viewed almost as men risen from 
the dead. The bells of Lerwick were rung, and 
other extraordinary demonstrations of joy made 
on their arrival. In a few days they entered the 
Thames. 

Two attempts had thus been made, each to a cer- 
tain point successful, but both arrested much short 
Gf the completion of the grand enterprise. The 



256 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

government at home, however, were not willing- to 
stop short in their spirited career. The western ex- 
tremity of Melville Island, and the strait of the Fury 
and Hecla, appeared to be both so blocked up as 
to afford little hope ; but Prince Regent's Inlet, when 
explored during Captain Parry's voyage, had pre- 
sented, indeed, an icy barrier, but such as had so often 
given way suddenly and almost instantaneously, that 
its existence early in the season could not be con- 
sidered very alarming. A passage through this 
channel v/ould bring the ships to the great sea 
bounding the northern coast of America, that had 
been seen from the strait of the Fury and Hecla, and 
along which Captain Franklin had partly sailed, and 
by which there was the fairest hope of reaching, by 
the most direct route, the waters of the great Pacific. 
To follow up these views. Captain Parry was again 
fitted out in the Hecla ; while, in the accidental ab- 
sence of Captain Lyon, the Fury was intrusted to 
Lieutenant, now Captain Hoppner, who had taken 
an active part in the operations of the last voyage. 

Tlie expedition set sail from Northfleet on the 19th 
May, 1824, and was in Davis's Strait by the middle 
of June. As the season, however, chanced to be pe- 
culiarly rigorous, it was not till the 10th of Septem- 
ber, that, after repeated repulses and severe straining, 
they caught a view of the bold and magnificent 
shores of Lancaster Sound, in which a few solitary 
icebergs were floating. After this they thought 
themselves fortunate, when, by pushing their way 
through many miles of newly-formed ice, they 
reached Port Bowen in time to make it their winter- 
quarters. 

The provision made during this winter for the 
physical well-being of the expedition was still more 
complete than in the former voyages. The heat of 
the cabins was kept up to between 50 and 60 degrees, 
and the seamen wore next the skin a clothing of fur, 
a substance which nature has endowed with a warmth 



RSCENT NORTH-WEST TOYAGES. 25? 

Car surpassing- that of any human fabric. Yet the 
deep monotony produced by the perfectly uniform 
aspect of external nature, instead of becoming less 
sensible by habit, was only the more painfully felt. 
As the Arctic theatre had lost its attraction. Captain 
Hoppner started the idea of masquerades, which 
were, perhaps, still more out of keeping with the 
place and persons ; but the sailors caught at it with 
pleasure, and on these occasions all of them acted 
their part with great spirit, and with strict decorum. 
The salutary and steady influence of the schools was 
again revived, and the whole crew gave their pre- 
sence, either as teachers, scholars, or spectators. 

The spring was unusually favourable, and, with 
comparatively easy sawing of the ice, the navigators 
warped out to sea on the 19th July, 1825. As it ap- 
peared most desirable to coast southward along the 
western shore of the inlet, they stood across the bay, 
but were soon arrested by a continuous barrier of ice, 
which, however, left an open space on the opposite 
side. A fruitless attempt was now made to penetrate 
southward, the channel there being found to be 
equally impeded with ice ; hence' it was judged ad- 
visable, with the view of seeking a less encumbered 
passage along the western shore, to stretch to the 
northward. An adverse gale, by which they were 
overtaken near the mouth of the inlet, now drove 
them eastward ; but at last they regained their 
course, and soon came in view of the bold face of 
the Leopold Isles, the rocks of which rise in hori- 
zontal strata of limestone to the height of 600 or 700 
feet, resembling a huge and impregnable fortress. 

Having touched at Cape Seppings, Captain Parry 
proceeded down the inlet, where he was no longer 
arrested by an unbroken barrier of ice. The sea, 
however, was still heavily encumbered by numerous 
small fragments, that were tossing- about in every 
direction, and pressed upon the ships so hard, that 
the men wished for a contrary wind ; which, coming 
Y2 



258 RECENT NORTH-WEST VOYAGES. 

from the south, would open and disperse the masses 
collected and driven against them by the north wind. 
In this anxious and precarious state, they worked 
slowly on till the 1st August, when they reached the 
latitude of 72° 42', longitude 91° 50'. Here Captain 
Parry, from the Hecla, saw the Fury receive a most 
severe shock by a large floe, that forced her against 
the grounded ice of the shore ; and tidings soon came, 
tliat she had been very sharply nipped^ and was ad- 
mitting water copiously. The commander trusted 
that this would prove as harmless as the many shocks 
which this vessel had already endured ; that the 
water made its entry by means of the twisted position 
into which she had been thrown ; and that, when she 
was relieved from pressure, her leaks would close. 
But the next accounts were, that she could not be 
kept clear of water except by the action of four 
pumps, at which the whole crew, officers and men, 
were obliged to work. It became evident that the 
evils under which, she laboured could only be dis- 
covered and remedied by the operation of heaving 
down^ by which her position being reversed, the parts 
now under water would be exposed to view. This ex- 
pedient required a harbour, and there was none at hand ; 
however, something was formed, which resembled 
one, by connecting with anchors and bower-cables 
the grounded ice to the shore. Four days were spent 
in unlading the Fury of those ample stores with 
which she had been provided. The operation was 
interrupted, too, by a violent storm of snow ; while 
the external ice, being driven in, demolished, in a great 
measure, the slender bulwarks by which the vessel 
was secured. Her holds were filled with water, and 
every examination proved the damage of her hull to 
be still more serious than was at first apprehended. 
No means or prospect appeared, either of securing 
her in her present position, or of floating her to any 
known place of safety. In these circumstances. Cap- 
tain Parry, without expressing any opinion of his 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 259 

own, called for a report from Captain Hoppner and 
his principal officers, all of whom agreed " that an 
absolute necessity existed for abandoning the Fury." 
Signals, therefore, were immediately made to the 
officers and men to carry their clothes and effects on 
board the Hecla. The stores, from want of room, 
were necessarily abandoned along with the ship ; 
and barrels of beef, beer, biscuit, and other valuable 
articles of provision, were left exposed on those 
savage and desolate shores, where they were unlikely 
to afford aid or benefit to any human being. After 
such a disaster, and the end of August being arrived, 
there was just time enough left to bring the Hecla 
home with a fair prospect of safety, — an event which 
was in due time accomplished. 



CHAPTER Vni. 

Recent Voyages tozivards the North Pole* 

Since the times of Hudson and Fotherby, during 
the lapse of more than a century, the attempt to 
reach and to cross the North Pole had not been re- 
sumed. The extraordinary zeal, however, which, in 
the early part of tlie reign of George HI., and under 
the patronage of that excellent monarch, was kindled 
in the cause of naval discovery, failed not to extend 
in every direction. Mr. Daines Barrington, distin- 
guished by the union of rank with scientific acquire- 
ments, espoused with ardour the belief that, in spite 
of every obstacle, the Pole of the earth might be 
reached, and various facts thereby brought to light, 
which at present are hid in mystery. He read to 
the Royal Society several papers on this subject, 
which were afterward reduced into a separate trea- 



260 RECENT polah voyages. 

tise ; and that learned body, imbibing with zeal the 
opinions of their eminent associate, solicited the 
Board of Admiralty to fit out an expedition which 
might attempt to realize this interesting object. The 
Earl of Sandwich, then at the head of the naval de- 
partment, entered with ardour into the Society's 
views, and drew up the plan of an expedition, which 
he submitted to his majesty, assured of meeting with 
his cordial concurrence. The intentions of govern- 
ment having now transpired. Captain John Phipps, 
afterward Lord Mulgrave, offered himself for the 
command, and was accepted. Two bomb-vessels, 
known under the rather odd names of the Race- 
horse and the Carcass, were selected, and stored with 
an extra provision of wine, spirits, and whatever else 
could contribute to the comfort and health of the 
crews. The Carcass was commanded by Lieutenant 
Lutwidge, under whom Horatio Nelson, afterward 
so celebrated in the naval annals of Britain, served 
as cockswain. Other equipments were added, not 
hitherto customary in nautical expeditions. Those 
formerly fitted out in England were chiefly set on foot 
by mercantile bodies, who were content to combine 
geographical discovery with certain views of com- 
mercial advantage. The expeditions projected under 
the auspices of George III. were the first which had 
the promotion of science for their sole object. Mr. 
Israel Lyons, an eminent astronomical observer, was 
employed by the Board of Longitude to supply the 
ships with suitable instruments ; they also sent two 
chronometers, constructed with the greatest care by 
Kendall and Arnold for measuring the distance 
from the first meridian, by difference of time. Mr. 
Cumming constructed a seconds-pendulum, fitted 
to determine the range of that instrument in high 
latitudes. Sir Joseph Banks and M. d'.Vlembert, 
drew up papers suggesting various scientific objects, 
respecting which observations would be desirable. 
The vessels were also supijUed with Dr. Irving's ap- 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES, 261 

paratus for distilling fresh water from the sea, — an 
invention which, being then recent, excited much in- 
terest. 

Thus equipped, the expedition began to move on 
the 21st May, 1773 ; but being detained by contrary 
winds, could not quit the Nore till the 4th June. 
The last object seen on land was Whitb}?- Abbey ; 
and Captain Phipps then steered into the mid-chan- 
nel of the German Ocean, endeavouring to avoid 
equally Norway and Shetland. In sixty degrees of 
latitude the sun set about twenty minutes past nine ; 
the clouds making a beautiful appearance by its re- 
flection from below the horizon. In latitude 66°, on 
the 19th June, that luminary, even at midnight, was 
still visible. Captain Phipps here undertook to 
make deeper soundings than were ever known to 
have been before attempted ; and with a very heavy 
lead he reached 780 fathoms. The temperature at 
that depth was 26° Fahrenheit, while in the air it 
was 48°. Trial was now made of Dr. Irving's ap- 
paratus, which was considered completely success- 
ful, inasmuch as it was found to produce a sufficient 
quantity of perfectly good water either for drinking 
or cooking, without any inconvenient expense of fuel. 
This favourable opinion has not been confirmed by 
nautical experience; and the practice, chiefly, we 
believe, from the quantity of fuel required, has never 
come into general use. 

On the 27th June, the navigators found themselves 
in the latitude of the southern part of Spitzbergen, 
without any appearance either of ice or land. On 
the 29th they saw the shore, and stood close in with 
it. This coast " appeared to be neither habitable 
nor accessible ; for it was formed by high barren 
black rocks, without the least mark of vegetation ; 
in many places bare and pointed; in other parts co- 
vered with snow, appearing even above the clouds : 
the valleys between the high cliffs were filled with 
snow and ice. The prospect would have suggested 



262 R1SCENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

the idea of perpetual winter, had not the mildness o-f 
the weather, the smooth water, bright sunshine, and 
constant daylight, given a cheerfulness and novelty 
to the whole of this striking and romantic scene." 
The mariners enjoyed fine weather in sailing along 
this bold and lofty coast, and measured the height of 
several of the mountains, one of which was found 
to be 4500 feet. On the 30th June they learned from 
the master of a Greenland vessel, that the ice lay 
sixteen leagues off to the westward, and that one 
Dutch and two English ships had been lost in the 
course of the season. 

In the first days of July, Captain Phipps con- 
tinued to steer along the coast of Spitzbergen, pass- 
ing several Greenland ships busily engaged in the 
^fishery. On the 4th he came to Magdalena Hoek, 
near which he landed, and began observations upon 
the variation of the compass, which were soon 
interrupted by a thick fog. Being informed by the 
Rockingham Greenland ship, that the ice was ten 
leagues off Hakluyt's Headland, he determined to 
steer for that north-western extremity of Spitzbergen. 
On the 5tli, as he was avoiding certain islands off 
Danes Gat, something white was seen amid the 
mist, and a noise was heard as of surf breaking upon 
the shore. The commander, desiring the Carcass 
to keep close to him, determined to stand for it, and 
see what it was. Ere long, amid thick fog, the 
crews saw an object on their bow, partly black, and 
partly covered with snow, which they at first mis- 
took for islands, but which soon proved to be the 
main body of the ice, on which wind and sea were 
beating with violence, and from which they could 
not have escaped, except by constant change of tack, 
and by the utmost alertness of officers and men. 

Captain Phipps, finding himself now upon the 
main northern ice, and being informed that it ex- 
tended, unbroken, to the north-west, determined to 
move eastward, — a direction seldom taken by tb* 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 26^ 

trhale-fishers, and where he hoped to find some 
opening to them unknown. Continuing to work his 
way against the wind, between the ice and the land, 
he passed first Hakluyt's Headland, then Vogel 
Sang, and on the 7th found himself approaching the 
bold pinnacle of Cloven Cliff, — a remarkable pro- 
montory, named from its resemblance to a cloven 
hoof, and which, from its perpendicular form, is 
never covered with snow. Here, as the frozen 
masses increased in number and size, and fresh ice 
was forming on the surface of the sea, the officers 
and men, after full deliberation, concluded it vain to 
attempt penetrating in this direction. They were 
farther discouraged, by considering that this was 
nearly the- place in which all previous navigators 
had been checked in their efforts to reach the Pole.. 
Captain Phipps therefore determined to stand to the 
westward, cherishing some hopes of a passage in 
that direction. He had a dreary run, immersed in 
fogs so thick, that the ships, even when very near^ 
could not see each other. A number of the crew^ 
notwithstanding an extra allowance of wine and 
spirits, became affected with rheumatic colds and 
pains in the bones. Having made ten degrees to the 
westward, without the least appearance of an open- 
mg, the commander determined again to try the east,. 
in the hope that the continuance of warm weather 
might have dissolved the barriers which had formerly 
arrested his progress. On the 12th July the navi- 
gators were again in the vicinity of Cloven Cliff, 
and found a good harbour on the island, to which it 
is attached by a nanow isthmus. Here they obtained 
abundance of water^ and, notwithstanding the fog, 
made some important celestial observations ; taking 
the bearings and altitudes of the principal objects on 
the coast. In endeavouring to push on, however^ 
Captain Phipps was again stopped at nearly the 
same point as before ; finding the ice locked in with 
ttlve land, and no passage either to the east or north* 



264 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

He turned once more in despair westward, and kept 
close to the main ice, pushing into all its openings, 
some of which, being nearly two leagues long, af- 
forded hopes of a passage ; but they proved to be 
only ice-bays. Near Hakluyt's Headland the ships 
suiFered a severe pressure between a loose fragment 
of ice and the main body. The commander now 
found it very unsafe to proceed before an easterly 
wind, which brought in all the loose pieces, and drove 
them against the great mass, making it resemble a 
rocky shore ; and it proved both easier and safer to sail 
against the wind. Captain Pliipps resolved, in spite 
of repeated repulses, to make another effort to the 
eastward ; and this time he had some success. Mak- 
ing way through the loose fragments, he came to an 
open sea, stretching north-east, which inspired the 
most flattering hopes. The coast was neither so 
lofty, nor exhibited the same dark monotonous aspect, 
as the one he had just passed; the tints, being more 
varied and having more of the natural colour of 
earth, had caused the early navigators to give to 
different points the names of Red Beach, Red Hill, 
and Red Cliff. At length he reached Moffen, an 
island low and flat, covered with numerous flocks of 
wild fowl. He continued two days longer to sail 
through an open sea, meeting only loose floating 
masses, till, on the 27th, he was stopped by the main 
body of the ice lying east and west. He then 
coasted it to the eastward, pushing the ship, by a 
press of sail, into the icy bays or openings, not- 
withstanding the large loose pieces by which these 
were encumbered. On the 29th July the expedi- 
tion reached a low flat island, larger than Moffen, 
clothed with moss, and filled with deer and various 
animals. They found on the shore large fir-trees, 
some 70 feet long, partly torn up by the roots, partly 
cut down by the axe, and fashioned into different 
shapes, but all perfectly entire. Two of the officers 
engaged in an encounter withi a walrus, from which 



RECENT rOLAR VOYAGES. 265 

they came off with little honour. The animal be- 
ing single, was wounded in the first instance ; but he 
immediately plunged into the deep, and came up 
with a large body of his fellows, who made a united 
attack upon the boat, wrested an oar from one of 
the men, and had nearly overset her, when another 
boat from the Carcass, under the command of Nelson, 
came to her relief. 

From the point which the discoverers had now 
reached, they saw that remote peninsula of Spitz- 
bergen which the Dutch call North-east-land, and 
beyond it the range of the Seven Islands. The ice 
however, began to gather round them, and Captain 
Lutwidge, on mounting the top of a high island, saw 
to the east and north-east one continued frozen sur- 
face, bounded only by the horizon. The ships were 
now becalmed amid a beautiful and picturesque 
scene; the immense field of ice being covered with 
snow, except that some pools of water were coated 
with a thin newly-formed crust. The mariners 
attempted in vain to make any sensible progress 
eastward ; the ice closed fast, and no opening was 
any where seen, except for about a mile and a half 
round the ships. The pilots, who had never before 
proceeded so far, M^ere seriously alarmed lest they 
should be beset. Nor were their fears groundless, 
for next day the ships were frozen in faster than ever, 
not having room to turn, while the passage by which 
they had entered from the westward had entirely 
closed up behind them. The adventurers had then 
no room for farther consideration, but how to ex- 
tricate themselves and return home. They began 
sawing through deep ice, where it was sometimes 
twelve feet thick ; and these laborious eflforts only 
enabled them to move three hundred yards west- 
ward; while the mass within which they were 
enclosed was moving eastward, carrying them along 
with it. In these circumstances. Captain Phipps 
conceived no time was to be lost in putting out the 
Z 



266 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

boats and dragging them over the ice, with the view 
of reaching the Dutch ships, which usually begart 
about this time to direct their course homewards. 
On the 7th August the boats were got forward two 
miles ; and the commander, on his returning to the 
ships, finding the ice round them a little more open^ 
caused all sails to be set, by which means they were 
made to move forward, though slowly, and stiB 
counteracted by the drift-ice. Being favoured, how- 
ever, by moist and foggy weather, their progress be- 
came more rapid. They came up with the boats^ 
and took them in ; and on the 10th, having a brisk 
gale from the north-east, they forced the ships through 
all obstacles, though not without sustaining many 
heavy strokes, and breaking the shank of their best 
bower-anchor ; but about noon they found themselves 
in the open sea. 

Being thus delivered from their greatest fear, they 
repaired to the harbour of Smeerenberg for rest and 
refreshment. In its vicinity they admired a very 
lofty iceberg, which presented to the sea a perpendiw 
cular face nearly 300 feet high, of a fine light green 
colour, and down which a cascade was pouring.. 
" The black mountains, white snow, and beautiful 
colour of the ice, made a very romantic and uncom- 
mon picture." A large fragment, which had fallen 
into the sea, floated out, and grounded in twenty- 
four fatlioms : it stood fifty feet high, and was of the 
same beautiful colour as the iceberg. 

Captain Phipps, before quitting the Polar world, 
made some general remarks on the phenomena which 
it presents. He observed always a great swell near 
the edge of the ice ; but, whenever he was enclosed 
among its loose fragments, the sea was perfectly 
smooth. According to Hudson, the green waters 
were free from ice, which was found only in the blue ; 
but no ground was now seen for this distinction, nor 
does there probably exist any. Marten described 
the sun at midnight as resembling the moon in ap- 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 267 

pearance; but our observers could see no differ- 
ence, except what arose from its being lower in the 
heavens. 

On the 19th August, Captain Phipps weighed for 
England, and on the 24th was somewhat surprised by 
the sight of Jupiter, no star having for a long time 
been visible amid the perpetual light of the northern 
sky. After passing Shetland on the 7th September, 
he met with a series of very heavy gales, during 
which he lost three boats, and was obliged to throw 
two guns overboard. However, having reached Or- 
fordness on the 24tb, he proceeded without farther 
difficulty to the Nore. 

The result of this voyage, which was considered 
as having been made under fair and even favourable 
circumstances, tended altogether to chill the hopes 
of penetrating nearer to the great northern bounda- 
ries of the earth. Ii seemed that, from the eightieth 
degree, ice in one unbroken field stretched to the 
Pole, and that its margin presented an impenetrable 
wall to the navigators of the Greenland Sea. Dis- 
appointed hope was followed, as usual, by a suspen- 
sion of interest ; and the northern realms had sunk 
almost into oblivion, till the revival of the recent 
spirit of discovery. Public attention was first recalled 
to them by Mr. Scoresby, who, bred as a practical 
whale-fisher, had been nursed, as it were, amid the 
tempests and snows of the north, and had observed 
their aspects with an intelligent and scientific eye, 
very unusual among those who pursue so rough and 
bustling a trade. 

In 1806 this gentleman made the nearest approach 
to the Pole that has ever yet been fully authenti- 
cated; for the statements of the Dutch, and other 
navigators, who boast of having gone much nearer, 
are subject to great doubt as to their observations of 
latitude. Mr. Scoresby was then acting as mate 
tinder his father, who commanded a Greenland ship. 
They at first proceeded by Jan Mayen into the west- 



26Sf RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

erii bight, where the seal-fishery is carried on ; but 
afterward they changed their purpose, and came 
round to the whale-bight. They found the v/aters 
encumbered, even in a low latitude, by much broken 
ice, through which they made their way not without 
some danger. They then reached an open sea, so 
extensive that its termination could not be disco- 
vered, and it was believed to extend four or five 
hundred square leagues. On proceeding northward, 
however, they soon arrived at a very close conti- 
nuous field, consisting of bay-ice compacted by drift- 
ing fragments. They pushed their way through it 
by^ the most laborious exertions,— towing, boring, 
warping, and mill-dolling — a process which consists 
in the use of a sort of battering-ram. Having thus 
opened a path across a very extended barrier, they 
came, almost beyond hope, to an open sea, which 
appeared nearly unbounded, having only the ice on 
the south and the land on the east. Their object 
was to catch whales ; and, following their primary 
purpose, they chose a Avest-north-west direction. 
Swiftly crossing the short meridians of this,parallel, 
they soon passed from the 10th degree of east to the 
8th degree of west longitude. Their latitude was 
79^ 35', and the sea was still open on every side. As 
whales, however, were wanting, they changed their 
tack, and ran east-north-east about 300 miles, till 
they came to the 19th degree of east longitude ; and 
here they found themselves in lat. SP 30', being a 
degree higher than Phipps had reached, and only 
about 500 geographical miles from the Pole. Had 
discovery been their object, they had now a brilliant 
opportunity; and neither master nor mate would 
have been insensible to the glory of acquiring en- 
larged knowledge of these utmost boundaries of the 
earth. But they had been fitted out by a mercantile 
body to bring home a cargo of whale oil, and this 
solid purpose could not be postponed to the most 
brilliant speculations of science. The sea lay vast 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 269 

and open before them ; but, as it contained no whales, 
it behooved them to steer their course backwards to- 
wards Hakluyt's Headland, in the vicinity of which 
they caug-ht twenty-four of those valuable animals, 
from which were extracted 216 tons of oil. 

Mr. Scoresby indulged his curiosity by landing on 
«ome of the insular tracts which fill the depths of the 
Polar sea, and clambering up the lofty steeps which 
usually rise from their shores. Charles's Island, or 
Fair Foreland, at the north-west of Spitzbergen, was 
the first Arctic ground on which he landed ; but the 
fog soon spread so thick, that he could remark little 
except the immense muhitude of birds which clustered 
around the rocks and precipices. Afterward, in 1818, 
he landed near Mitre Cape, and undertook to reach 
the summit of that singularly insulated cliff of which 
it consists. Much of the ascent was over fragments 
of rock so loose, that the foot in walking slid back 
every step, and the party could make no progress 
but by the very laborious operations of running and 
leaping. The continuance of frost appears to cause 
this extraordinary decomposition of the rocky sub- 
stance. At one place they found a ridge so steep, 
that Mr. Scoresby could seat himself across it as on 
the back of a horse. They reached the summit, es- 
timated at 3000 feet high, about midnight, when the 
sun still shone bright on its snow-capped pinnacle, 
causing such a rapid dissolution, that streams of 
water were flowing around them. It is considered 
remarkable, that, in this frozen region, where, even 
at a moderate elevation, the mean annual temperature 
must be below the freezing point, the highest sum- 
mits should put off their winter-covering of snow, 
in which so many peaks, both of the temperate and 
of the torrid zones, are perpetually enveloped. It 
would appear, however, that during the short interval 
of continuous summer-day, the rays of the sun, 
beating perpetually on the mountain-tops, which are 
•raised above the fogs that surround the watery surface, 
Z2 



270 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

produce a degree of heat much greater than corres- 
ponds with the latitude. Hence the general average 
of the year, and especially the part which composes 
the long Arctic night, must be marked by a fearful 
depression. 

The view from this summit is described by Mr 
Scoresby as equally grand, extensive, and beautifuL 
On the east side were two finely-sheltered bays; 
while the sea, unruffled by a single breeze, formed 
an immense expanse to the west. The icebergs 
reared their fantastic forms almost on a level with 
the summits of the mountains, whose cavities they 
filled, while the sun illumined, but could not dissolve 
them. The valleys were enamelled with beds of 
snow and ice, one of which extended beyond reach 
of the eye. In the interior, mountains rose beyond 
mountains, till they melted into distance. The 
cloudless canopy above, and the position of the party 
themselves, on the pinnacle of a rock, surrounded 
by tremendous precipices, conspired to render their 
situation equally singular and sublime. If a frag- 
ment was detached, either spontaneously or by design, 
it bounded from rock to rock, raising smoke at every 
blow, and setting numerous other fragments in mo- 
tion, till, amid showers of stones, it reached the bot- 
tom of the mountain. The descent of the party was 
more difficult and perilous than the ascent. The 
stones sunk beneath their steps, and rolled down the 
mountain, and they were obliged to walk abreast, 
otherwise the foremost might have been overwhelmed 
under the masses which those behind him dislodged. 
Finally, to the astonishment and alarm of the sailors 
beneath, Mr. Scoresby and his companions, in a part 
of their descent, slid down an almost perpendicular 
wall of ice, and arrived in safety at the ships. The 
beach was found nearly covered with the nests of 
terns, ducks, and other tenants of the Arctic air, in 
some of which there were young, over whom the 
parents kept watch, and, by loud cries and vehement 



RECENT POLAR VOVAGES. 271 

gestures, sought to defend them against the gulls 
and other predatory tribes hovering around. Several 
sailors who had robbed these nests were followed to 
a considerable distance with loud and violent screams. 
Mr. Scoresby, also, in 1817, landed and made an 
excursion on Jan Mayen's land. The most striking 
feature was the mountain Beerenberg, which rears 
its head 6870 feet above the sea ; and, being seen to 
the distance of thirty or forty leagues, proves a con- 
spicuous landmark to the mariner. The first object 
which attracted the eye were three magnificent ice- 
^bergs, which rose to a very great height, stretching 
from the base of Beerenberg to the water's edge. 
Their usual greenish-gray colour, diversified by snow- 
white patches resembling foam, and with black 
points of rock jutting out from the surface, gave them 
exactly the appearance of immense cascades, which 
in falling had been fixed by the power of frost. A 
party ascended a mountain which composed only 
the base of Beerenberg, yet was itself 1500 feet high. 
They were not long in discovering that the materials 
composing this eminence were entirely volcanic. 
They trod only upon ashes, slag, baked clay, and 
scoriae ; and, whenever these substances rolled under 
their feet, the ground beneath made a sound like that 
of empty metallic vessels or vaulted caverns. On 
• the summit they discovered a spacious crater, about 
600 feet deep, and 700 yards in diameter, the bottom 
of which was filled with alluvial matter, and which, 
being surrounded by rugged walls of red clay half- 
baked, had the appearance of a spacious castle. A 
spring of water penetrated its side by a subterranean 
cavern, and disappeared in the sand. No attempt 
was made to ascend Beerenberg, which towered in 
awful grandeur, white with snow, above the region 
of the clouds; but at its feet was seen another crater 
surrounded by an immense accumulation of castel- 
lated lava. A large mass of iron was found, that 
/had been smelted by the interior fires. The volcano 



272 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

was at this time entirely silent, but Mr. Scoresby 
next year saw smoke rising from it to a great height ; 
and the same phenomenon had, in 1818, been dis- 
cerned by Captain Gilyott of the Richard, who even 
remarked a shining redness like the embers of a 
large fire. 

The most important discoveries, however, effected 
by Mr. Scoresby, took place in 1822, when he sailed 
in the ship Baffin, of 321 tons and 50 men, for the 
whale-fishery. He departed from Liverpool on the 
27th March, and on the 28th passed the Mull of Can- 
tyre, but immediately after encountered a violent 
gale, which, blowing on this dangerous coast, obliged 
Fdm to take shelter for ten days in Loch Ryan. This 
interval of leisure was improved, according to his 
laudable custom, for purposes of scientific experi- 
ment ; and in this instance he had particularly in 
view the improvement of the chronometers used in 
navigation. On the 8th April he again set sail; 
passed on the 10th the dangerous rocks and islands 
of Skerivore, west of Tiree; and on the 11th, at 
noon, saw the island of St. Kilda. On the 14th, 
when only in lat. 64^ 30', the cry was raised 
that ice was in sight, and the mariners were soon 
involved in its streams, accompanied with the usual 
dense and deep obscurity of Arctic fogs. On the 
morrow they were stopped by an extensive patch, 
which they spent several days in vainly attempting 
to double ; but at length, setting all sail on the ship, 
they made their way through it in the course of an 
hour. They now proceeded northward with a fair 
wind, observing the brilliant phenomenon of the 
Aurora Borealis, and seeing the ocean covered with 
large quantities of drift-wood. On the 25th April, 
in lat. 75**, they found themselves in the region of 
continued day; and being now in " a fishing latitude," 
took out their boats, coiled their lines, and prepared 
the harpoons, lances, and other apparatus. On the 
27th they reached the 80th degree, and were within 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES, 273 

ten miles of Hakluy t's Headland without having yet 
felt any frost. Continuing to approach the Pole, 
Mr. Scoresby reached, on the 28th, the main northern 
ice at the same point where it had been found by 
Lord Mulgrave. He proposed to run along it to the 
eastward, in hopes of reaching a good fishing station, 
but the state of the wind compelled him to turn in 
the opposite direction. On the 6th May the first 
whale was taken. On the 9th a heavy gale from the 
north-east produced symptoms of cold, similar to 
those felt in the extremity of an Arctic winter ; the 
skin adhering to metallic substances ; water spilt 
within three feet of the cabin fire converted into ice ; 
even a mug of good beer nearly frozen at the very 
foot of the stove. Mr. Scoresby's situation was 
painful; the sea was covered with such a dense 
stratum of frost-rime, reaching to the height of 50 
feet, that nothing could be seen from the deck : and 
he could not guide the ship without mounting the 
topmast, where the view was clear, but the tempera- 
ture was from 3 to 8 degrees below zero, which the 
gale rendered most intensely piercing. Soon after, 
being involved in floating ice, he had a most difficult 
course to steer, though he observes that, to a true 
navigator, the high exertion of nautical skill required 
to perform the continual evolutions and changes of 
course necessary amid floating ice, is productive of 
peculiar enjoyment ; and accordingly he extricated 
himself without any material damage. 

Mr. Scoresby, finding no whales in his present 
station, determined upon a change. For some time 
past, these high latitudes, probably in consequence 
of having been so long Jished, had become nearly 
unproductive, and the only good cargoes were ob- 
tained by penetrating through the ice to the eastern 
shores of Greenland. A trip in this quarter coin- 
cided with another object in which Mr. Scoresby 
felt peculiar interest. The whole range of this coast 
was absolutely unknown, unless at a few points, 



274 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

which the Dutch had approached and named; and 
it formed a continuous hne with that on which the 
colonies of Old Greenland, the subject of much in- 
terest and controversy, were supposed to have been 
situated. 

In this course Mr. Scoresby was amused by striking* 
instances of the refractive power of the Polar 
atmosphere, when acting upon ice and other objects 
discerned through its medium. The rugged surface 
assumed the forms of castles, obelisks, and spires, 
which here and there were sometimes so linked 
together, as to present the semblance of an extensive 
and crowded city. At other times it resembled a 
forest of naked trees ; and fancy scarcely required 
an effort to identify its varieties with the productions 
of human art ; — sculptured colossal forms, porticoes 
of rich and regular architecture, — even with the shapes 
of lions, bears, horses, and other animals. Ships 
were seen inverted, and suspended high in the air, 
and their hulls often so magnified as to resemble 
huge edifices. Objects really beneath the horizon 
were raised into view in a most extraordinary man- 
ner. It seems positively ascertained, that points in 
the coast of Greenland, not above 3000 or 4000 feet 
high, were seen at the distance of 160 miles. The 
extensive evaporation of the melting ices, with the 
unequal condensation produced by streams of cold 
air, are considered by Mr. Scoresby as the chief 
sources of this extraordinary refraction. 

It was on the 8th of June that, in 74"^ 6' north la- 
titude, a vast range of land was discovered, extend- 
ing from north to south, about ninety miles, and of 
which the most northerly point was concluded to be 
that named on the charts Gale Hamkes' Land, while 
the most southerly appeared to be Hudson's Hold- 
with-Hope. Mr. Scoresby's ambition, however, to - 
mount some of its bold crags, which no European 
foot had ever trod, was defeated by the interposition 
of an impassable barrier of ice ; and a similar one 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 275 

having closed in behind him, he was obliged to sail 
back and forward for several days through a narrow 
channel. During this interval he had a good oppor- 
tunity of taking the bearings and directions of this 
great line of coast. The latitude, as given in the 
maps, was tolerably correct, and was indeed his only 
guide in tracing the positions ; for the longitude, after 
the most careful observation, was found to differ 
seven degrees from the best charts, and ten degrees 
from those usually supplied to the whale-fishers. 
This coast was generally mountainous, rugged, and 
barren, bearing much resemblance to that of Spitz- 
bergen, though less covered with snow. It could not 
be fully ascertained whether some low ground might 
not be interposed between the sea and the mountains ; 
but their aspect, and the general analogy of the Arc- 
tic shores, suggested the idea that these mighty cliffs 
dipped perpendicularly into the waves. 

Mr. Scoresby followed the usual system of naming 
the prominent objects, either after persons eminent 
in science or after his private friends. The two prin- 
cipal bays or inlets were designated from Captain 
Kater and Sir Walter Scott ; Avhile two spacious fore- 
lands or projecting peninsulas, the former supposed 
to be an island, were assigned to Dr. WoUaston and 
Sir Everard Home. Other bays and capes were be- 
stowed upon Sir Thomas Brisbane, Dr. Brinkley, 
Colonel Beaufoy, Dr. Holland, Mr. Herschel, and 
some of the author's personal friends. Afterward, 
obtaining the view of some smaller bays to the south, 
he was enabled thus to compliment Sir George Mac- 
kenzie, Sir Charles Giesecke, Baron Humboldt, M. 
de la Place, and M. Freycinet. 

Mr. Scoresby now made a movement eastward 
in search of whales, of which he found no traces in 
the vicinity of land. This change of purpose was 
attended with a very distressing circumstance. Wil- 
liam Carr, one of his most expert liarpooners, and a 
fine active fellow, had struck a whale, which flew off 



I 



276 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

with such rapidity, that the line was jerked out of 
its place, and threatened the sinking of the boat* 
Having snatched the rope to replace it in the pioper 
position, he was caught by a sudden turn, instantly 
dragged overboard and plunged under water to rise 
no more. The boat having at once righted itself, the- 
sailors looked round and asked, "Where is Carr?'^ 
One man only had seen him disappear, but so instan- 
taneously, that he had merely missed the object,., 
without being able to say how. The distress and 
agitation of the survivors afforded the stricken whale' 
a respite, of which he availed himself to effect his 
escape. Mr. Scoresby, deeply distressed, took the^ 
opportunity next Lord's day of calling the attentioi^ 
of his crew to their own most importanit interests,, 
and to their preparation for such a catastrophe as 
had befallen their comrade ; on which occasion alt 
the sailors seemed much affected. 

About a month was passed in searching for whaler 
at a little distance from the shore, and several of 
these animals, as well as narwals, were taken ; but 
as they ceased to appear, it was resolved again to- 
stand in for the land. On the 19th July the navi- 
gators came in view of a range of coast, of a very 
bold and peculiar character, extending about forty 
miles. It presented a mountain-chain from three to 
four thousand feet high, rising at once from the 
beach in precipitous cliffs, which terminated in num- 
berless peaks, cones, and pyramids, with sharp and 
rugged rocks everywhere jutting out from their sides. 
From one of the mountains rose six or seven tall 
parallel chimneys, above each other; one of which, 
crowned with two vertical towers, was called Church 
Mount. This coast received the name of Liverpool ; 
while to the mountains was given that of Roscoe. 
The range of shore terminated at Cape Hodgson; 
beyond which, however, steering south-west, they 
descried three other promontories, to which were 
successively given the names of Cape Lister, Cape 



RECENl POLAR VOYAGES. 377 

Swainson, and Cape Tobin. Here Mr. Scoresby 
took, for the first time, the opportunity of landing, 
when he found the beach much lower than that farther 
to the north, and consisting in a great measure of 
loose stony hills. After some examination, he came, 
near Cape Swainson, to an enclosure formed by pa- 
rallel walls, similar to those which the Esquimaux 
construct for their summer huts, and within which 
were hollow structures like bee-hives, such as they 
use for stores. A narrow scrutiny showed remains 
of fuel, charrel drift-wood, half-burned moss and 
ashes ; which last was considered as indicating the 
place to have been occupied at no distant period. 
Tiiere were also found instruments of wood and 
bone, one of them tipped with iron. 

Resuming their course at sea, and still holding 
south-westward, there now appeared a spacious inlet, 
to which, in looking upwards, no termination could 
be seen. Mr. Scoresby, while penetrating this inlet, 
discovered another sound branching to the northward, 
behind the Liverpool coasts and supposed to form it 
into an island. The opposite shore of this entrance 
was named Jameson's Land, from the eminent pro- 
fessor of natural history at Edinburgh. Beyond 
Cape Hooker, the southern point of Jameson's Land, 
another large inlet stretched towards the north, to 
which was given the name of Captain Basil Hall. It 
had every appearance of converting Jameson's Land 
also into an island. The coast to the westward of 
this last approach received the name of Milne's Land* 
Between Cape Leslie, the northern point of Milne's 
Land, and Cape Stevenson, on the opposite shore, 
the original opening continued to stretch into the 
interior, without any appearance of a termination. 
Combining this observation with the position of 
Jacob's Bight in the same latitude on the western 
coast, which Sir Charles Giesecke traced to the 
height of 150 miles, where it opened into a sort of 
inland sea, there appeared a strong presumption, that, 
A a 



278 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

instead of the continuous mass of land which our 
maps represent, Greenland composes only an im- 
mense archipelago of islands. To this great inlet, 
the entrance of which was bounded by Cape Tobin 
on the north, and Cape Brewster on the south, Mr. 
Scoresby gave the name of his father, though poste- 
rity will probably be apt to associate with himself 
the name of " Scoresby's Sound." 

These coasts, especially that of Jameson's Land, 
were found richer in plants and verdure than any 
others seen by our navigator within the Arctic circle, 
and almost meriting the appellation of Greenland. 
The grass rose in one place to a foot in height, and 
there were meadows of several acres that appeared 
nearly equal to any in England. Nowhere could a 
human being be discovered; but everywhere there 
were traces of recent and even frequent inhabitation. 
At the foot of a range of cliffs, named after Mr. 
Neill, secretary to the Wernerian Society, were 
several hamlets of some extent. The huts appear 
to have been winter-abodes, not constructed of snow 
slabs like those of the Esquimaux of Hudson's Bay, 
but resembling those of the Greenlanders, dug deep 
in the ground, entered by a long winding passage or 
funnel, and roofed with a wooden frame overlaid 
with moss and earth. The mansion had thus the 
appearance of a slight hillock, and seemed quite an 
underground habitation. Near the hamlets were 
excavations in the earth, serving as graves, where 
implements of hunting, found along with the bones 
of the deceased, proved the prevalence here of the 
general belief of savage nature, that the employments 
of man in the future life will exactly resemble those 
of the present. There was one wooden coffin, which 
the author was willing to believe might mark a rem- 
nant of European colonization. It was thought sin- 
gular, that the dwellers on this coast should have 
been Recently so numerous, and yet not one of them 
left ; but probably these were winter*quarters, v/hile 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 279 

during the summer the natives had repaired into the 
interior, where they might find those land-animals 
which retreat to the southward during the more 
rigorous season. 

On emerging from this large sound and proceeding 
southward, Mr. Scoresby discovered another conti- 
nuous range of coast, which afforded to him a bay 
to be named after Mr. Wallace, and three capes after 
Messrs. Russell, Pillans, and Graham, eminent pro- 
fessors in the university of Edinburgh; also an 
island named after Captain Manby; another after 
Dr. Henry, and a cape after Mr. Dalton, two distin- 
guished chemists at Manchester;' also another cape 
after Dr. John Barclay of Edinburgh. 

Disappointed as to any appearance of whales on 
this coast, Mr. Scoresby again steered out to sea and 
to the northward. Tcebergs surrounded him, amount- 
ing at one place to the number of fiYe hundred. 
This course brought him in a few days within sight 
of lands stretching more northerly than those recently 
•surveyed, and connecting them with the others which 
he had first discovered. There appeared two large 
territories, seemingly insular, to which were given 
the names of Canning and Traill. Between them 
waj3 a most spacious inlet, honoured with the name 
of Sir Humphrey Davy. On penetrating this open- 
ing there arose several points of land, probably 
islands, which afforded a range of mountains, made 
commemorative of Werner, the celebrated geologist; 
a smaller ridge was assigned to Dr. Fleming ; after 
which were appropriated Capes Biot, Buache, Carne- 
gie. He landed on Traill Island, and with incredible 
toil clambered to the top of a hill, where he hoped 
to have found a small plain containing a few speci- 
mens of Arctic vegetation; but this summit was 
steeper than the most narrowly-pitched roof of a 
house, and, had not the opposite side been a little 
smoother, he would have found much difficulty in 
sliding down. Beyond Traill Island, and separated 



280 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

from it by a considerable inlet named after Lord 
Mountnorris, was another coast ; the pointed extre- 
mity of which received the name of Captain Parry. 
This promontory being at no great distance from 
Cape Freycinet, which had been seen in the first sur- 
vey, there was thus completed the observation of a 
range of four hundred miles of coast, formerly known 
only by the most imperfect rumours and notices, and 
which might therefore be strictly considered as a new 
discovery. 

Mr. Scoresby afterward approached more closely 
to Canning Island, and penetrated a sound between 
it and the main, connected apparently with Hurry's 
Inlet, and where he gave names to Capes Allan, 
Krusenstem, and Buch. 

Our navigator woula have been happy to examine 
more of the Greenland coast, having on one occasion 
had a fair prospect of being able to run southward 
to Cape Farewell ; but the ship was not his own, and 
his destination being to catch whales, compelled him 
to turn in another direction. He had met hitherto 
with much disappointment in this pursuit; and, the 
season being far advanced, was apprehensive of 
being obliged to return with a deficient cargo. But 
on the 15th of August numerous whales appeared 
round the ship : of these five were struck and three 
taken, which at once rendered the ship fulljishedf 
and placed him among the successful adventurers 
of the year. He could return, therefore, with 
satisfactory feelings ; and the pleasure of the voyage 
homeward was only alloyed by the occurrence of 
a violent storm off Lewis, in which Sam Chambers, 
one of the most esteemed of his sailors, was washed 
overboard. 

To these discoveries of Mr. Scoresby some addi- 
tions were made next year by Captain Clavering, 
who was employed by the Admiralty to convey Cap- 
tain Sabine to different stations in the Arctic sea, for 
the purpose of making observations on the compara- 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 281 

tiv6 length of the pendulum as affected by the prhi- 
ciple of attraction. 

Captain Clavering sailed on the 3d May (1823), 
and on the 2d June arrived at Hammerfest, where he 
landed Captain Sabine with the tents and instru- 
ments. The observations being comp eted, he sailed 
on the 23d, reached the northern coast of Spitzber- 
gen, and fixed on a small island between Vogel Sang 
and Cloven Cliff for farther scientific operations. 
While Captain Sabine was employed upon the island, 
he endeavoured to push into a more northern lati- 
tude ; but after great exertion, he could not reach 
beyond 80° 20'. Accompanied by the former, whom 
he had now rejoined, and whose observations were 
completed, he left this coast on the 22d July, and 
steered for the eastern shores of Greenland, of which 
he came in view on the 5th August. The scene ap- 
peared the most desolate he had ever beheld. The 
mountains rose to the height of several thousand 
feet, without a vestige of vegetation, or the appear- 
ance of any living creature on the earth or in the 
air. Even the dreary waste of Spitzbergen appeared 
a paradise to this. He landed Captain Sabine and 
the scientific apparatus on two islands detached 
from the eastern shore of the continent, which he 
called the Pendulum Islands, and of which the out- 
ermost point is marked by a bold headland, rising to 
the height of 3000 feet. 

While Captain Sabine was employed in his course 
of observations. Captain Clavering surveyed a part 
of the coast which lay to the northward, being the 
first which Mr. Scoresby saw. It was at some dis- 
tance, with an icy barrier interposed ; but was found 
indented with deep and spacious bays, suspected 
even to penetrate so far as to convert all this range 
of coast into a cluster of large islands. The inlet, 
which the former navigator had assigned to Sir 
Walter Scott, was believed by Clavering to be 
that discovered by the Dutch mariner Gale Hamkes ; 
Aa2 



282 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

but we have not ventured to remove this last from 
the more northerly position fixed by Mr. Scoresby. 
Other openings which occurred in proceeding to- 
wards the north were named, by the Captain, Fos- 
ter's Bay, Ardincaple, and Roseneath Inlets; and 
he saw bold and high land still stretching in this di- 
rection as far as the seventy-sixth degree of latitude. 
In regard to the natives, Captain Clavering was 
more fortunate than his predecessor, who saw only 
their deserted habitations. On landing at a point 
on the southern coast of Sir Walter Scott's Inlet, 
he received intelligence of Esquimaux having been 
seen at the distance of a mile, and hastened thither 
with one of his officers. The natives on seeing 
them immediately ran to the top of some rocks ; 
but the English advanced, made friendly signs, depo- 
sited a mirror and a pair of worsted mittens at the 
foot of the precipice, and then retired. The Esqui- 
maux came down, took these articles, and carried 
them away to the place of their retreat ; but they 
soon allowed the strangers to approach and accost 
them, though their hands when shaken were found 
to tremble violently. By degrees confidence was es- 
tablished, and they followed the English to their 
own tent, five feet high and twelve in circumference, 
composed of wood and whalebone. Their aspect 
and conformations, their boats and implements, ex- 
actly corresponded to those observed by Captains 
Parry and Lyon in Hudson's Bay. A child, after 
being diligently cleared of its thick coating of dirt 
and oil, was found to have a tawny copper-coloured 
skin. The natives were astonished and alarmed be- 
yond measure by the effect of firearms. A seal 
being shot, one of them was sent to fetch it. He 
examined it all over till he found the hole made by 
the bail, when, thrusting his finger into it, he set up 
a shout of astonishment, dancing and capering in 
the most extravagant manner. Another was pre- 
vailed upon to fire a pistol ; but instantly on hearing^ 
the report, started and ran back into the tent. 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 283 

The observations were not completed till the be- 
ginning of September, when the season was too late 
to allow Captain Ciavering to gratify his wish of 
making a run to the northward. Nor did he extri- 
cate himself from the ice without some severe 
shocks; yet, after spending six weeks at Dron- 
theim, he entered the Thames in the middle of De- 
cember. 

We have departed somewhat from the regular 
order of time, for the purpose of giving in a con- 
nected view the observations and discoveries of Mr. 
Scoresby, and the additions to them by Captain Cla- 
vering. Meantime, however, another grand attempt 
had been made to explore the depths of the Polar 
sea. Combined with Captain Ross's mission in 
search of the north-west passage, the Dorothea and 
Trent were placed under the command of Captain 
Buchan, with the view of pushing direct to the Pole, 
and endeavouring not only to reach that grand boun* 
dary, but to pass across it to India, — a voyage which, 
from the relative position of these two parts of the 
globe, would have been much shorter by this route 
than by any other. It was contended by the sup- 
porters of this undertaking, that the failures of Hud- 
son, Fotherby, and Phipps had occurred in conse- 
quence of their being entangled in the winding shores 
and bays of the northern coast of Spitzbergen ; that 
the production of ice took place chiefly in the neigh- 
bourhood of land : and that, by keeping decidedly in 
the midst of the ocean-channel, navigators would, 
instead of a boundless and unbroken field, find an 
open and navigable sea. 

Captain Buchan having set out early in the season 
of 1818, came on the 27th May in view of Cherie 
Island. Without pausing there, he stretched along 
the western coast of Spitzbergen, to the eightieth 
degree of north latitude, where he encountered a se- 
vere storm, which separated his vessels for a time, 
and obliged them to seek shelter in Magdalena Bay. 



284 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES* 

On the 10th June he met several Greenland ships, 
and was informed by the masters, that m the great 
sea to the westward, to which he had looked with 
the greatest hope, the ice was completely impene- 
trable. He determined, therefore, to turn Hakluyt's 
Headland, and proceed north-eastward in the track 
ultimately followed by Lord Mulgrave. On his way 
he was soon completely beset, being hemmed in by 
fields of ice ten or twelve miles in circumference, 
amid which icebergs rose in the rudest and most fan- 
tastic forms, appearing like specks in a boundless 
plain of alabaster. On the 26th June the navigators 
reached Fair Haven, situated between Vogel Sang 
and Cloven Cliff. Being detained here for some 
time, they found numerous herds of the walrus and 
the deer, and killed, after hard combats, several of 
the former, one weighing a ton ; while of the latter 
they despatched with ease from forty-five to fifty, 
the average weight of which was 120lbs. Being at 
length unable to move forward, they reached the la- 
titude of 80° 32', where they were beset for three 
weeks. On the 29th July, the Dorothea was again 
brought into open water ; but on the 30th she was 
exposed to a tremendous gale, which blew her 
upon the main body of the ice, with a force which 
she was unable to resist. In this awful situation, 
the crew, having no time to deliberate, determined to 
turn the helm so that the wind might drive the ship's 
head into the ice, where, it was possible, they might 
find a secure lodgement even amid this fearful tem- 
pest. The helm was so placed ; and a solemn awe 
impressed the mariners during the few moments 
which were to decide, whether the Dorothea was to 
be safely moored, or to be dashed to pieces. She 
struck with a terrible shock, which was repeated 
frequently in the course of half ar hour. By that 
time she had forced her way more than twice her 
own length into the body of the ice, where she 
remained immoveably fixed. Bj'^-and-by the gale 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 285 

moderated, and she was again brought into an 
open sea; but she had been so shattered, and the 
water entered by such numerous leaks, that scarcely 
any effort could preserve her from sinking. Next 
morning, however, being fine, the crew wtth much 
difficulty worked her round to the harbour of Smee- 
renberg. There she was so far refitted as to be able, 
in the beginning of September, to take the sea, and 
on the 10th October came in view of the coast of 
England, near Flamborough Head. 

No farther attempt was made to reach the Pole 
in sMps ; but, after a certain interval, a plan was de- 
vised to push towards that grand boundary in vehicles 
wafted over the frozen surface of the ocean. It was 
Mr. Scoresby by whom this scheme was first sug- 
gested* In a memoir read to the Wern^ rian Society, 
he endeavoured to prove that such a journey was 
neither so visionary nor so very perilous as it might 
appear to those who were unacquainted with the 
ibrctic regions. The Polar Sea in some meridians 
would, he doubted not, present one continued sheet 
of ice ; the inequalities of which, if tolerably smooth, 
would oppose no insurmountable barrier. Intervals 
of open water would be more troublesome ; yet the 
vehicle, being made capable of serving as a boat, 
might either sail across, or make a circuit round 
them. This conveyance, he remarked, ought to be 
a sledge formed of those light materials used by the 
Esquimaux in the construction of their boats, and 
drawn either by reindeer or dogs. The former ani- 
mals are so fleet, that, in favourable circumstances, 
they might go and return in a fortnight, while the 
best dog-team would require five or six weeks ; the 
latter, however, would be more tractable, and better 
fitted for skimming over thin or broken ice. Though 
the cold would be very severe, yet as no very 
alarming increase occurred between the seventieth 
and eightieth degrees of latitude, there was little 
ground to apprehend that in the other ten degrees, 



286 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

reaching to the Pole, it should become insupportable. 
For provisions were recommended portable soups, 
potted meats, and other substances, which, with little 
weight, contained much nourishment. 

These suggestions did not for a considerable time 
attract attention ; but at length Captain Parry, after 
his three brilliant voyages to the north-west, finding 
reason to suspect that his farther progress in that 
direction was hopeless, turned his enterprising views 
elsewhere, and conceived the ambition of penetrating 
over the frozen sea to the Pole. Combining Mr. 
Scoresby's ideas with his own observations, and with 
a series of reflections derived by Captain Franklin 
from his extensive experience. Captain Parry formed 
and submitted to the Lords of the Admiralty the plan 
of an expedition over the Polar ice. Their Lord- 
ships, having referred this proposal to the council and 
committee of the Royal Society, and received a favour- 
able report as to the advantages which science might 
derive from such a journey, applied themselves with 
their usual alacrity to supply the Captain with every 
thing which could assist him mthis bold undertakmg. 
The Hecla was emploj^ed to carry him as far as a 
ship could go, and with her were sent two boats, to 
be dragged or navigated, according to circumstances, 
along the unknown and desolate expanse between 
Spitzbergen and the Pole. These boats, being built 
of successive thin planks of ash, fir, and oak, with 
sheets of water-proof canvass and stout felt inter- 
posed, united the greatest possible degree of strength 
and elasticity. The interior was made capacious and 
flat-flooied, somewhat as in troop-boats, and a runner 
attached to each side of the keel fitted them to be 
drawn along the ice like a sledge. Wheels were 
also taken on board, in case their use should be found 
practicable. 

The adventurers started early. On the 27th March, 
1827, they were towed d^own the river by the Comet 
steamboat, and on the 4th April weighed from the 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 287 

No re On the 19th they entered the fine harhour 
of Hammerfest in Norway, where they remained two 
or three weeks, and took on board eight reindeer, 
with a quantity of picked moss for their provender. 
Quitting Norway on the 11th May, they soon found 
themselves among the ice, and met a number of 
whale-ships. On the 13th they were in view of 
Hakluyt's Headland, when the Captain endeavoured 
to push his way to the north-east in the track of 
Phipps. The vessel, however, was soon completely 
beset, and even enclosed in a large floe, which 
carried her slowly eastward along with it. As every 
day was now an irretrievable loss. Captain Parry 
became impatient in the extreme, and formed a plan 
to push off northward, leaving the ship to find a har- 
bour for herself, where he trusted on his return to 
trace her out. But the survey of the route in the 
proposed direction was most discouraging. In con- 
sequence of some violent agitation in the preceding 
season, the ice had been piled up in innumerable 
hummocks, causing the sea to resemble a stone-ma- 
son's yard, except that it contained masses six times 
larger. This state of the surface, which would have 
rendered it impossible to drag the boats more than a 
mile in the day, was found to prevail for a considera- 
ble space with little interruption. The current mean- 
time continued to carry the ship, with the floe to 
which it was attached, slowly to the eastward, till it 
brought her into shoals in the vicinity of ice, where 
she grounded in six fathoms ; after which Captain 
Parry felt it quite out of the question to leave her 
till she was lodged in a secure harbour. He worked 
on gradually, however, to the east and north, passing 
Walden Island, and obtaining a full view of the 
Seven Islands ; but here the sea was covered with 
one unbroken land floe attached to all the shores, 
which destroyed every hope of finding a harbour 
among these islands. No choice was then left but 
to steer back for the coast of Spitzbergen, where he 



2B8 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

unexpectedly lighted on a very excellent harbour, 
named by him Hecla Cove, and which proved to be 
part of the bay to which an old Dutch chart had 
given the name of Treurenberg. It wa& now the 
20th of June, and the best of the season had been 
spent in beating backwards and forwards on. these 
ice-bound shores ; he therefore resolved, without 
farther delay, to prosecute the main object of his 
enterprise. Scarcely hoping to reach the Pole^ he 
determined, at all events, to push as far north a» 
possible. He took with him seventy one days' pro 
vision, consisting of pemmican, (beef dried and 
pounded) y biscuit, cocoa, and rum. Spiritsh of wine^ 
as the most portable and concentrated fuel, was 
alone used for that purpose. TTiere were provided 
changes of warm clothing, thick fur-dresses f jr sleep- 
ing in, and strong Esquimaux boots.. The reindeer 
and also the wheels were given i^ at once as altogether 
useless in the present ringed state of the ice ; but 
four sledges, constructed out of the Esquimaux 
snow-shoes, proved very convenient for dragging 
along the baggage. 

On the 22d June the expeditionury party quitted 
the ship, and betook themselves to the boats amid 
the cheers of their associates. Although all thfr 
shores were still frozen, they had an open sea, calm 
and smooth as a mirror, through which they sailed 
slowly but agreeably with their loaded vessels. 
After proceeding thus for about eighty miles, they 
reached, not as they had hoped, the main body of the 
iceybut a surface intermediate between ice and water^ 
This could neither be walked nor sailed over, but 
was to be passed by the two methods alternately. 
However, on such a strange and perilous plan it be- 
hooved them to land, in order to commence their 
laborious and monotonous journey towards the Pole. 

Captain Parry describes in an interesting manner 
the singular mode of travelling to which they were 
compelled to adhere. The first step was to convert 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES 289 

night into day ; to begin their journey in the evening 
and end it in the morning. Thus, while they had 
quite enough of light, they avoided the snow-glare 
and the blindness which it usually produces ; they 
had the ice drier and harder beneath them; and they 
enjoyed the greatest warmth, when it was most 
wanted, during the period of sleep : they were only 
a little annoyed by frequent and denser fogs. Thus 
their notions of night and day became inverted. 
They rose in what they called the morning, but 
which was really late in the evening, and having 
performed their devotions, breakfasted on warm co- 
coa and biscuit. They then drew on their boots, 
usually either wet or hard frozen ; and which, though 
perfectly dried, would have been equally soaked in 
fifteen minutes. The party then travelled five or six 
hours, and a little after midnight stopped to dine. 
They now performed an equal journey in what was 
called the afternoon ; and in the evening, that is, at 
an advanced morning hour, halted as for the night. 
They then applied themselves to obtain rest and 
comfort, put on dry stockings and fur-boots, cooked 
something warm for supper, smoked their pipes, told 
over their exploits, and, forgetting the toils of the 
day, enjoyed an interval of ease and gayety. Then, 
wrapping themselves in their fur-cloaks, they lay 
down in the boat, rather too close together perhaps, 
but with very tolerable comfort. The sound of a 
bugle roused them at night to their breakfast of 
cocoa, and to a repetition of the same round. 

The progress for several days was most slow and 
laborious. The floes were small, exceedingly rough, 
and with interposed lanes of water, which could 
not be crossed without unloading the boats. It was 
commonly necessary to convey these and the stores 
by two stages, when the sailors, being obliged to re- 
turn for the second portion, had to go three times 
over the same ground ; sometimes they were obliged 
to make three stages, and thus to pass over it five 
Bb 



290 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

times. There fell as much rain as they had expe^ 
rienced during the whole course of. seven years 
in a lower latitude. A great deal of the ice over 
which they travelled was formed into numberless' 
irregular needle-like crystals, standing upwards, and 
pointed at both ends. Tlie horizontal surface of 
this part had sometimes the appearance of greenish 
velvet, while the vertical sections, when in a com- 
pact state, resembled the most beautiful satin-spar, 
and asbestos when going to pieces. These peculiar 
wedges, it v^^as supposed, were produced by the drops 
of rain piercing through the superficial ice. The 
needles at first afforded tolerably firm footing ; but 
becoming always more loose and moveable as the 
summer advanced, they at last cut the boots and 
feet as if they had been penknives. Sometimes, too,, 
there arose hummocks so elevated and rugged that 
the boats could only be borne over them, in a di- 
rection almost perpendicular, by those formidable 
operations called " a standing pull and a bowline- 
haul." The result of all this was, that a severe ex- 
ertion of five or six hours did not usually produce a 
progress of above a mile and a half or two milesy 
and that in a winding direction ; so that, after having 
entered upon the ice on the 24th June, in latitude 81 
degrees 13 minutes, they found themselves on the 29th 
only in 81 degrees 23 minutes, having thus made only 
about eight miles of direct northing. Captain Parry 
soon relinquished all hope of reaching the Pole; 
however it was resolved to push on as far as possible. 
The party came at length to somewhat smoother 
ice and larger floes, and made rather better progress. 
While the boats were landing on one of these, the^ 
commander and Lieutenant Ross usually pushed on 
to the other end to ascertain the best course. On 
reaching the extremity, they commonly mounted 
the largest hummock, whence they beheld a scene of 
which nothing could exceed the dreariness. The eye 
rested only upon ice. and a sky hid in dense and dia- 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 291 

m^ fogs. Amid this scene of inanimate desolation, 
the view of a passing bird, or of ice in any peculiar 
shape, excited an intense interest, which they smiled 
to recollect ; but they were principally cheered by 
viewing the two boats in the distance, the moving 
figures of the men winding with their sledges 
among the hummocks, and by hearing the sound of 
human voices, which broke the silence of this fro- 
zen wilderness. The rain, and the increasing 
warmth of the season, indeed gradually softened 
the ice and snow, but this only caused the travellers 
to sink deep at every step. At one place they sunk 
repeatedly 'three feet, and required three hours to 
make a htindred yards. As they halted on the eve- 
ning of the 5th 3^uly, the margin of the floe broke, 
and a bag of cocoa fell into the sea, but luckily 
alighted on a tongue of ice and was taken up.* At 
the same time pools and even lakes were formed on 
the frozen surface ; and though the peculiar blue of 
these superglacial lakes formed one of the most 
beautiful tints in nature, this was a poor compensa- 
tion for being obliged to make a great detour in 
order to avoid them. Still, amid all these diffi- 
culties, the floes became on the whole larger, the 
ianes of water longer, and the day's journey was 
gradually extended. Having attained 82 degrees 
40 minutes, they began to hold it as a fixed point 
that their efforts would be crowned with success so 
far as to reach the eighty-third parallel. This hope 
seemed converted into certainty, when, on the 22d 
they had travelled seventeen miles, the greater pro- 
portion of which was directly north. But there now 
occurred an unfavourable change, which baffled all 
theirtoils and hopes. Down to the 19th the wind had 
Mown steadily from the south, and, without aiding 

* It may be mentionr-d, that the contents of the package here aMuded 
to were found to be quite uninjured after this rude immersion, a pro- 
tection ascribed to " Mackintosli's water proof canvass," — a manufac- 
ture which, as a security for sea-storen, is mentioned by Captain Pariyr 
>£ji lermfi o{ Ute hjgiiest commendation. 



292 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

them much, had at least checked the usual move- 
ment of the ice in that direction. On this last day, 
however, a steady breeze sprung up from the north, 
which opened, indeed, a few lanes of water; but 
this it was feared could not compensate for the de- 
gree in which it could not fail to cause the loos- 
ened masses of ice, with the travellers upon them, 
to drift to the southward. This effect was soon found 
to take place to an extent still more alarming than 
had been at first anticipated. Instead of ten or twelve 
miles, which they reckoned themselves to have tra- 
velled northward on the 22d, they were found not to 
have made quite four. This most discouraging fact 
was at first concealed from the sailors, who only re- 
marked, that they were very long of getting to this 
83d degree. The expedition was now fast approach- 
ing the utmost limits of animal life. During their 
long journey of the 22d they saw only two seals, a 
fish, and a bird. On the 24th only one solitary rotge 
was heard; and it might be presumed that, from 
thence to the Pole, all would be a mighty scene of si- 
lence and solitude. The adventurers pushed on with- 
out hesitation beyond the realms of life ; but now, 
after three days of bad travellings when their reckon- 
ing gave them ten or eleven miles of progress, observa- 
tion showed them to be four miles south of the posi- 
tion w^hich they occupied on the evening of the 22d. 
The drifting of the snow-fields had in that time car 
ried them fourteen miles backward. This was too 
much. To reach even the eighty-third degree, though 
only twenty miles distant, was now beyond the 
limits of hope. To ask the men to undergo such un- 
paralleled toil and hardship, with the danger of their 
means being exhausted, while an invisible power 
undid what their most strenuous daily labours 
achieved, was contrary to the views of their consi- 
derate commander. In short, he determined that they 
should take a day of rest, and then set out on their 
return. This resolution was communicated to the 



RKCENT POLAR VOYAGES. 29S 

crew, who, though deeply disappointed at having 
achieved so little, acquiesced in the necessity, and 
consoled themselves with the idea of having gone 
farther north than any previous expedition of which 
there was a well-authenticated record. 

The return was equally laborious as the going out, 
and in some respects more unpleasant, from the in- 
creasing softness of the ice and snow; depriving 
them of confidence in any spot on which they could 
place their boats or persons, a^d often sinking two 
or three feet in an instant. However, the drift 
southward made no longer any deduction from their 
progress, but added to it, every observation giving 
them several miles beyond their reckoning. There 
was more open water, and it was a relief to them 
that the sun in their nightly journeying was lower 
in the horizon; while, being to the northward, he 
did not as, formerly, glare in their faces. They met 
several bears, and killed one, which was eagerly de- 
voured by the hungry crew ; but the meal was fol- 
lowed by such severe symptoms of indigestion as 
inspired an unfavourable opinion regarding the flesh 
of this animal. Captain Parry attributed the bad 
effects to the enormous quantity eaten. At length, 
on the nth August, they heard the sound of the 
surge breaking against the exterior margin of the 
great icy field. They were soon launched on the open 
sea, and reached Table Island, where a suppfiy of 
bread had been deposited ; but Bruin had discovered 
it, and devoured the whole. They found, however, 
some accommodations; while the stores left atWal- 
den's Island were still quite undisturbed. On the 2 1 st 
the navigators arrived in Hecla Cove, from whence 
soon afterward, they sailed for England. 

Such was the result of the first and only attempt 
to penetrate to the Pole over the frozen surface of 
the deep. All the prowess, energy, and hardihood 
of British seamen were exerted to tlie utmost, with- 
•out making even an approach towards the fulfil- 
Bb2 



294 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

ment of their object. A failure so complete has 
suspended for the present every idea of resuming 
the project ; yet there seems nothing in the details 
just given to deter from the enterprise as impossible, 
or even to render it very unfeasible. The unfavour- 
able issue seems evidently owing to the advanced 
season of the year, when the thaw and consequent 
dissolution of the ice had made great progress, and 
all the materials of the great northern floor were 
broken up. The water, in its progressive conver- 
sion flrom solid into fluid, presented only a trea- 
cherous quicksand, in which the travellers sunk at 
every step, with the peril of being finally swallowed 
up. The ice in these intermediate stages of its tran- 
sition into water, and in the breaches and pressures 
to which this gave rise, assumed a variety of much 
more rugged forms, than when it was spread and 
fast bound over the surface of the ocean. Its ten- 
dency also when loosened to float to the southward, 
carrying with it whatever is moving along its sur- 
face, inevitably defeats every attempt to proceed 
over it in a contrary direction. We entirely concur, 
therefore, in Mr. Scoresby's opinion, that a departure 
much earlier in the season would be quite indis- 
pensable to give any chance of success. We would 
even go farther than he, and advise to start at the 
first dawn of the Polar day, when there would be 
a probable chance of returning by the end of June. 
The great plain of ice would be much smoother and 
much firmer at that than at any other season. It 
would be deeply covered with snow, which would 
fill various interstices, convert rugged steeps into 
sloping ridges, and produce a surface generally more 
level and uniform. This coating, too, would then 
be much harder, perhaps sufficient to sustain the 
weight both of the men and boats, and afford every 
where sure and solid footing. Wheels, it is probable, 
might be employed with advantage, though wholly 
unfit for that rugged and sinking surface over which 



RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 295 

Captain Parry was obliged to tread. We are even 
inclined to ask, whether other machinery might not 
be beneficially introduced ] Could there not be con- 
structed a light portable bridge, to be thrown across 
chasms and from hummock to hummock, over which 
the keel of the boats by due adaptation might slide 
as on a railway, and the evils of friction be avoided 1 
— The cold, doubtless, would be most extreme and 
intense ; but Captain Parry's experience and manage- 
ment during his four winterings seem to have re- 
moved every apprehension that it would prove fatal. 
The boats might be hermetically closed, with wind- 
ing entrances, like the winter-huts of the Esquimaux; 
and it was clearly established, that, even in the dark- 
est depth of the Polar winter, provided tempests did 
not fill the sky, it was possible and even most salu- 
tary, to perform brisk movements in the open air. 
The travellers would indeed require an addition to 
their spirituous fuel, not a weighty article ; also a 
larger stock of clothes ; but these last it would be every 
way expedient to wear on their persons. The only 
circumstance which seems seriously alarming, is an 
observation made by Captain Parry, that the daily 
allowance of provision, amounting to ten ounces of 
biscuit and nine of pemmican, was not found suffi- 
cient to maintain the men in full vigour ; and truly, 
when contrasted with their severe toils, it does ap- 
pear an inadequate supply. It were dreadful indeed 
to think of sending a party to the Pole on short allow- 
ance. The quantity could not well be increased 
without making the drag too severe ; but we cannot 
help thinking that the victuals selected, fulfilled very 
imperfectly the obvious condition of being such as to 
comprise the greatest possible nutriment in the least 
possible bulk. Thus it seems unaccountable that 
the greater part of the food should have been farina- 
ceous, in the form of dry biscuit, which contains 
surely much less nourishment than the same weight 
of animal food. We pretend not to be at all versant 



296 RECENT POLAR VOYAGES. 

in the mysteries of cookery ; yet portable soup, fot 
instance, might certainly have been so prepared as 
to imbody a much greater amount of nutritive sub- 
stance than mere dried and pounded beef; and, if 
duly seasoned, might have formed a most comfortable 
mess under the snows of the Pole. The addition of 
some rich cakes, cheese, and butter might seem 
likely to compose a store which, without exceeding 
in weight that of Captain Parry, would yield a much 
larger proportion of nourishment and strength.— We 
should hesitate to recommend Mr. Scoresby's plan of 
being drawn to the Pole by reindeer, or even of 
trusting to a team of any description. These ani- 
mals would be liable to many casualties, and, should 
they break down at an advanced period of the route, 
the result might be disastrous in the extreme. 

This project would requiie,of course, that the ship 
should winter on the northern coast of Spitzbergen; 
an arrangement, we conceive, indispensable to avoid 
that delay which had such an influence in frustrating 
the late expedition. We are surprised 'to find, that 
even Captain Parry, after so many successful winter- 
ings, considers this as a serious objection. In fact, 
on seeing it admitted, that before the close of autumn 
a ship might penetrate to 82°, and perhaps to 83°, Ave 
are tempted to ask whether a discovery- vessel might 
not, in the first season, push forward to that latitude, 
and find a station either in an island, if such should 
be found, as has been done before ; or, if not, whether 
it might not enclose itself within one of the great 
fields of ice, and there await the arrival of spring 1 
A very considerable and probably the roughest por- 
tion of the Polar route would thus be avoided. 



A different principle from that above suggested 
has been proceeded upon by Captain Ross, in the 
Arctic expedition in which he is now engaged. By 
the power of steam, which has produced such 
wonders in modern navigation, he hopes to vanquish 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 297 

the obstacles which have arrested in this career all 
former navigators. Steam, indeed, has no power 
against ice ; but if at any period of the season there 
should be found an open sea reaching to the Pole, a 
vessel thus propelled might in a week perform the 
voyage to and from that great boundary. The doubt 
whether the waters will ever open to such an extent, 
and the fear that, having opened and allowed the na- 
vigators to pass, the ice may close in behind them, 
cannot fail to suggest themselves to the reader's 
mind ; but we do not wish at present to indulge in 
unfavourable augury. 

Captain Ross makes this bold attempt solely upon 
his own resources, and doubtless with the view of 
effacing the error by which he relinquished to Cap- 
tain Parry the glory of penetrating by Lancaster 
Sound into the Polar ocean. He took his departure 
in the Spring of 1829. His vessel, it appears, suf- 
fered some damage in the Greenland sea, which he 
was enabled to repair by the aid of a ship employed in 
whale-fishing. He proposed, it was understood, to 
winter in Spitzbergen, and in the course of the present 
summer to attempt the execution of his grand design. 
The issue, however, is not likely to be known in this 
country till a very advanced period of the season. 



CHAPTER IX* 

The Northern Whale-Fishery. 

We have formerly had occasion to notice the great 
number and stupendous magnitude of those animal 
forms with which nature has filled the abysses of the 
Arctic ocean. The cetaceous orders, which include 
the mightiest of living beings, belong peculiarly, and 



298 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

in some respects exclusively, to those northern 
depths. Confident in their multitude and their 
stren^h, they would for ever have rested peaceful and 
undisturbed amid the vast and dreary domain which 
Providence has given them to occupy, had not the 
spirit of avarice commenced against them a deadly 
warfare. Man, ever searching the remotest parts 
of the globe for objects which might contribute to 
his use and accommodation, discovered in those 
huge animals a variety of substances fitted for the 
supply of important wants. Even after his more 
refilled taste rejected their flesh as food, the oil was 
required to trim the winter lamp, and to be employed 
in various branches of manufacture ; while the bone, 
from its firm, flexible, and elastic quality, is pecu- 
liarly fitted for various articles of dress and ornament. 
No sooner, therefore, had the course of discovery 
opened a way into the seas of the north, than he 
discerned the benefits which might be derived from 
snatching the spoil of these tenants of the frozen 
waters. He commenced against them a system of 
attack, that was soon converted into a regular trade, 
but one more full of adventure and peril than any 
-other by which human subsistence is earned. 

It has been generally supposed that whal^-fishing, 
as a commercial pursuit, arose subsequently to the 
revival of navigation in Europe ; but the researches of 
Mr. Scoresby leave no doubt that, on a small scale 
at least, it existed at a much earlier period. Even 
the voyage of Ohthere, in 890, shows that its opera- 
tions were already carried on with some activity on 
the coast of Norway. Indeed it was natural that, 
in this native region of the cetacea, their capture 
would commence sooner than elsewhere, and at an 
era probably ascending far beyond human records* 
Still this was not the true whale, an animal w^hich 
never leaves its haunts in the depths of the Arctic 
zone. It was that species of dolphin called bottle- 
fiose, which alone reaches the northern extremities 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 29^ 

of Europe ; is occasionally stranded on the coasts of 
Orkney and Shetland; and at times penetrates nvuch 
farther south. 

The Northmen, in their career of conquest and 
settlement over Europe, introduced on the coast of 
France the hunting of the whale, which, to these 
hardy mariners, was at once a trade and a sport ; 
having found in the southern seas an inferior species, 
attracted thither hy the shoals of herrings on which it 
fed. These smaller fish frequent the Bay of Biscay, 
to which they seem to make a periodical migration, 
and where they are arrested by the wide circuit of 
its shores. Ancient documents prove that the Nor-^ 
mans, the Flemings, and even the English,, regarded 
them as a valuable commodity ; less,, however, for 
the oil, which in this species is not very abundant, 
than for the flesh, which satisfied the hunger and evert 
pleased the palate of our rude ancestors. Whales' 
tongues are ranked among the delicacies that adorned 
the table of the middle ages. 

The bay just named afforded the chief theatre for 
this southern whale-fishery, which was almost en- 
tirely engrossed by the people inhabiting its interior 
shores ; those of Beam and Gascony on the French 
side, and of Biscay on the Spanish. The Basques in 
particular soon surpassed all other nations^ and car- 
ried to such perfection the processes connected with 
this pursuit, that the most expert whale-fishers in 
modern times have done little more than copy their 
usages. By degrees they extended their adventures 
into the northern seas, where they met the people 
of Iceland, a Norwegian colony, who had already 
engaged in this trade. Here the Basques and Ice- 
landers, combining their efforts, soon brought the 
fishery into a very flourishing state. 

This, however, was conducted on a small scale, 
M^hen compared with theenterprise of modern nations. 
Yet the first northern navigators were not attracted 
thither by this special object, but stumbled on it,, a^. 



300 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

it were, in the course of their arduous attempts to 
accomphsh a passage to India by the Arctic seas 
Barentz, in 1596, discovered Spitzbergen, long the 
main seat of this fishery, and even examined a con- 
siderable extent of its shores ; but as these presented 
an obstruction to his views of reaching India, and as 
his voyage closed at last in disaster, no other result 
was obtained beyond a certain knowledge of geo- 
graphy and of the animal kingdom. 

The English were the first who pushed their ope- 
rations into the depth of the Arctic ocean. The Bear 
Island of Barentz, being rediscovered and named 
after Alderman Cherie, gave rise to a series of voy- 
ages for the capture of the walrus, of which some 
account has been already given. The views of the 
merchants were much extended, when Hudson, hav- 
ing engaged in his daring attempt to reach and to 
cross the Pole, surveyed Spitzbergen or East Green- 
land even to its northern extremity. Although unable 
to penetrate farther, he gave information regarding 
the immense number of whales which were seen on 
those Arctic shores. Thenceforth the adventurers 
fitted out for Polar discovery were instructed to cover 
their expenses, as far as might be, by the occasional 
capture of these valuable animals. This arrange- 
ment, as formerly remarked, was not happy, so far 
as discovery was concerned, since the considerations 
of profit were very likely to supersede the main object 
of the voyage. Poole, in 1610, confined his views 
almost entirely to the capture of the walrus ; but as 
he reported a great abundance of whales, the Com- 
pany next year sent out the Mary Margaret, furnished 
with Biscayan harpooners, and with every thing re- 
quisite for the great fishery. Captain Edge accord- 
ingly succeeded in taking a small whale, which 
yielded twelve tons of oil ; the first, as he conceives, 
that was ever extracted in the Greenland seas. The 
termination of this voyage was unfortunate ; yet the 
Aluscovy Company next year sent out two ships. 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 301 

the Whale and the Seahorse, to follow up the design. 
The Dutch, meantime, intent on every form of com- 
mercial adventure, had vessels that very year for the 
same purpose in the Greenland waters. These our 
countrymen chose to consider as interlopers, and 
being the stronger party, compelled their rivals to 
decamp, without even attempting the fishery. Next 
year the same Company obtained a royal charter, 
prohibiting all besides themselves to intermeddle in 
any shape with this valuable branch of industry. To 
make good this privilege, which the Dutch were not 
disposed to consider well-founded, the Company fitted 
out seven strong and well-armed ships, whose com- 
manders, on reaching the seas round Spitzbergen, 
found them filled with ships of different nations, 
Dutch, French, and Spanish. All these the English 
compelled either to depart, or to fish under the con- 
dition of delivering half of the proceeds to them as 
the lords of the northern seas. So busy were they, 
however, in excluding others, that, little time or care 
being bestowed on their own fishing, they returned 
very slenderly laden. Foreign nations exclaimed 
against this interference as a most flagrant example 
of the tyranny of the new mistress of the ocean; 
and, indeed, the grounds on which England rested 
her claim do not appear to have been valid. She 
alleged the prior occupation made by Sir Hugh Wil- 
loughby ; but supposing that the mere view, through 
mist and tempest, of the Spitzbergen coast, could 
have established a permanent right to rule over the 
neighbouring waters, this discovery was shown by 
Peter Plancius, the cosmographer, on the clearest 
grounds, to have been made by Barentz, and not by 
Sir Hugh. The commencement of the fishery by 
the English formed certainly a better claim, yet still 
by no means sufficient to establish perpetual sove- 
reignty over those vast seas. The Dutch determined 
not only to refuse acquiescence, but to repel force 
by force ; for which purpose they sent out fleets so 
Cc 



302 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

numerous and so well armed, that for some years 
only slight and partial annoyances were sustained 
by them ; while the two governments appear to have 
looked on and allowed the adventurers to fight it out. 
At length, in 1618, a general encounter took place, 
which terminated to the disadvantage of the English, 
one of whose ships was taken and carried into Am- 
sterdam. The Dutch administration, reluctant to 
involve themselves in a quarrel with their powerful 
neighbour, prudently restored the vessel with its 
lading and crew ; bestowing at the same time a re- 
ward on the gallant seamen who had made the cap- 
ture. At length it appeared expedient to put an end 
to this perpetual collision. There was admitted to be 
room enough for all the nations of Europe, provided 
they ceased to annoy each other; therefore a divi- 
sion was made of the coasts and bays of Spitzbergen 
among such States as had been accustomed to resort 
to the fishery. The English, allowed to have some- 
what of the best claim, were favoured with the first 
choice ; they pitched upon Horizon Bay, Clock Bay, 
Safety Port, and Magdalena Bay, in the more southern 
part of the coast, and near the laige island called 
Charles's Foreland. Then followed the other nations 
in the order of their adjudged rights. The Dutch 
chose the fine island at the north-west extremity, 
which they named Amsterdam, with three bays, one 
of which, between it and the mainland, they called 
Hollanders' Bay. The Danes and Hamburghers 
found an island and a bay between the Dutch and 
English stations, while the French and Spaniards 
were obliged to content themselves with Biscayners' 
Point and other bleak promontories along the north- 
ern coast. 

The English Russia or Muscovy Company were 
thus allowed full scope for carrying on the trade, 
from which they diligently excluded the rest of their 
countrymen. Their pursuits, however, were pro- 
bably too various, and their transactions on too great 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 303 

a scale, for permitting them to bestow on this diffi- 
cult trade that close attention which could alone 
render it productive. The gains of their fishery were 
more than absorbed by extensive losses ; they gra- 
dually limited their transactions, till England scarce- 
ly sent a ship to the north, and saw all the markets 
filled by her industrious rivals. 

The Dutch, meantime, succeeded in converting tliis 
fishery into a grand source of national wealth. At 
first, according to the usage of the time, they fol- 
lowed the objectionable system of an exclusive 
company, though on a somewhat liberal scale. The 
original body, formed at Amsterdam, was obliged to 
admit others belonging to Zealand and Friesland, 
and finally to receive into their number many weal- 
thy individuals of the province of Holland. The 
nation, having thus invested an immense capital in 
this trade, and carrying it on with their characteris- 
tic prudence and dihgence, soon raised it to the 
highest pitch of prosperity. On their first arrival in 
the northern seas, the whales were seen extended on 
the face of the deep without any fear, and present- 
ing themselves, as it were, to the stroke of the har- 
poon. The only difficulty was to carry them home ; 
for one or two such large animals were sufficient to 
fill a ship. The Dutch adopted, therefore, the plan 
of extracting on the spot the oil and bones ; thus 
reducing all the valuable substance into so small a 
compass, that one ship could convey the produce of 
numerous whales. They founded the village of 
Smeerenberg, in the bay of the same name, where 
fish were discovered in extraordinary abundance. 
Boilers, tanks, coolers, and all the requisite apparatus, 
were erected on an immense scale ; and this station, 
during the summer, became crowded and populous, 
resembling in some degree a northern Batavia. The 
fishers caught whales without any efibrt, and had 
only to carry them two or three miles to the shore, 
where the oil was extracted. In this dreary corner, 



304 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

too, were enjoyed all the luxuries of life, among 
which ar(y specially mentioned hot rolls, prepared 
every morning. A bell was rung, at the sound of 
which all the inhabitants ran to supply themselves 
with a dainty that seemed to belong to a different 
climate. Zorgdrager mentions, that he entered this 
bay in 1697, and found it occupied by 188 vessels, 
having on board the produce of 1959 fish. 

Under these easy circumstances, the trade, even 
in the hands of an exclusive company, became an 
ample source of national wealth. Soon, however, 
it experienced an unforeseen reverse. The whales, 
pursued and killed in such vast numbers, learned to 
Jread the assault of that mighty destroyer who had 
invaded their haunts, undisturbed for so many prior 
ages. They gradually, and at last almost entirely, 
deserted Smeerenberg, removing into North Bay, 
where they were still taken with facility ; but much 
delay was incurred in the conveyance of the carcasses 
to the former station. From North Bay, also, they 
gradually receded, and the fishers were obliged to 
follow them into the open sea, where both the cap- 
ture and transportation became more and more 
difficult. These mighty animals relinquished part 
after part of their native deeps, and were everywhere 
compelled to give way before a destroying power 
which they could not otherwise escape. They 
sought their final refuge near that great bank of ice 
which forms the western boundary of the Whale- 
fishers' Bight in the Greenland sea. Hither it 
behooved the pursuers to follow ; where, mooring 
themselves to frozen fields, they watched with no 
small hazard the movements of their prey. The 
expense and delay of conveying their prizes, some- 
times 2000 miles, to the harbour of Smeerenberg, 
becoming very inconvenient, arrangements were 
made, by which the whale, being fastened to the 
sides of the ship, w?is Jiensed, or cleared of its blub- 
ber and bone ; after Avhich the useless carcass was 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 305 

consigned to the deep. The village then lost every 
foundation on which its prosperity had rested. The 
stores, furnaces, capacious vessels, and numerous 
utensils there deposited, were carried away; hence 
it is now difficult to trace the spot on which stood 
that once flourishing- settlement. At the same time, 
the trade, become thus arduous and perilous, and 
yielding reduced profits, was no longer advantageous 
to an exclusive body. That once prosperous com- 
pany was accordingly dissolved, and the fishery 
thrown open to all who chose to engage in it : and 
such is the activity of individual enterprise, that, 
even under a diminished prospect of success, a 
greater number of ships are now employed than ever 
was fitted out from the ports of Holland. 

The English meantime did not remain altogether 
unconcerned spectators of this immense prosperity 
on the part of their neighbours. After the Muscovy 
Company was off the field, another was instituted, 
under the title of " The Company of Merchants of 
London trading to Greenland." They subscribed a 
capital of 40,000/. which was increased successively 
to 82,000/. though only 45,000/. was actually paid. 
This undertaking proved most disastrous. In nine 
years the entire capital was lost, and the concern 
broken up. Its fall is traced by Elking to the 
usual loose and wasteful management incident to 
large companies carrying on their concerns by un- 
interested agents. Men were employed for masters 
who were entirely unacquainted with the business : 
they were paid by a fixed salary instead of receiving 
a share of the produce ; hence they used to spend 
long intervals on shore, amusing themselves with 
hunting deer, and appropriating to their own use the 
fruits of the chase. The wreck of the Company's 
last ship, after the capture of eleven whales, preci- 
pitated their ruin. 

The legislature, mortified that this trade, which 
^as enriching the neighbouring nations, should prove 
Cc2 



306 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

SO fruitless in the hands of Britons, redoubledtheii 
encouragements, and exempted from all duty the 
produce of the national whale-fisheries. Thus fa- 
voured, and stimulated by the representations of Mr. 
Elking, the South Sea Company determined to em- 
bark in this pursuit a large proportion of their capital. 
In 1725 they built twelve large and strong vessels, 
fully equipped with cordage, casks, and fishing 
implements. These ships went out in spring, and 
returned with twenty-five fish, which did not quite 
pay the expense of equipment ; however, this, upon 
the whole, was thought not a bad beginning, and 
gave hopes of improvement, which were far from 
being fulfilled. In 1730 twenty-two ships were sent 
out, and returned with only twelve whales, so that a 
loss was incurred in that year of nearly 9000/. The 
following season was little better ; and the Company, 
finding that in eight years they had expended an 
immense sum, without the least prospect of repay- 
ment or profit, threw up the trade altogether. 

Notwithstanding these repeated and signal failures, 
the British government did not relax their zeal. In 
1732 a bounty of twenty shillings per ton was granted 
to every ship exceeding 200 tons employed in the 
whale-fishery. Several private individuals were thus 
induced to embark in the trade, and with tolerable 
success ; yet there being still no appearance of its 
rising to any national importance, the bounty was 
extended, in 1749, to forty shillings. This produced 
at length the desired effect. In 1752 the ships sent 
out amounted to forty sail, including several from 
Scotland, whose merchants in 1750 had begun to 
participate in the trade. In 1755 they had increased 
to eighty-two sail; and in the next twenty years the 
trade continued in a varying but generally prosperous 
state. Some regulations were introduced with the 
view of making it more efficient as a nursery of 
seamen ; and in 1769 it was considered firmly esta- 
blished, after the natioi>had^paid in bounties upwards. 



nohthern whale-fishery. 307 

of, 600,000Z. then reckoned an enormous sum. These 
^considerations induced the legislature, in 1777, to 
reduce the rate to thirty shillings; but the fishery 
could not support itself on this encouragement, and 
the vessels employed fell, between the years 1775 
■and 1781, from 105 to 39. The allowance of forty 
shillings being restored, it regained its full prosperity, 
%vhich soon appeared so steady as tq admit the 
reduction of the bounty ; the total amount of which, 
paid down to 1786, had not fallen short of 1,266,000/. 
It was therefore reduced in 1787 to 305. ; in 1792 to 
^55. ; and in 1795 to 205. Even under this lowest 
grant the fishery increased ; able and intelligent 
whale-captains were formed, and Britain soon out- 
stripped all other nations in a pursuit in which hei 
first steps had been so tardy. Another circumstance 
doubtless much favoured this progress. The Dutch 
having imprudently admitted the French into theii 
territory, were soon absorbed into the destructive 
vortex of that revolutionary power. Involved in 
her long war with the mistress of the seas, and 
subjected to the anti-commercial policy of Na- 
poleon, Holland saw all her fisheries, with every 
other branch of her foreign commerce, completely 
annihilated, and British vessels enjoying the undis- 
turbed possession of the northern seas. Peace, in- 
deed, at length re-opened to that nation all these 
channels of industry; but during a suspension of 
twenty years their habits were broken, their con 
nexions dissolved, their most skilful and intrepid 
whale-fishers had died out; while Britain, which 
had been in a state of constant activity and im- 
provement, was now every way an overmatch for 
her formerly successful rival. 

Before proceeding to describe the operations of 
the whale-fishery, it may be proper to mention some 
attempts which, with a view to its more effectual 
prosecution, were made to establish colonies on the 
dreary shores of the Polar sea. 



308 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY 

In 1633 the Dutch planned a settlement on the 
northern coast of Spitzbergen, when seven sailoris 
volunteered for this arduous undertaking. On the 
30th August the fleet left them in North Bay, where 
they not only undertook to live during the winter, 
but even to provide themselves Mdth fresh provisions. 
They visited all the surrounding shores, took three 
reindeer and a number of sea -swallows, collecting 
also a great quantity of a species of watercress. 
Their great ambition was to catch a whale ; but, 
though tantalized by the sight of many, all their 
attempts failed. Even one found dead and fresh on 
the margin of the sea was floated out by the tide be- 
fore they could secure it. 

It was on the 3d October that the extreme cold 
began to be felt, accompanied by numerous flights 
of birds passing to the southward. On the 13th one 
of the casks of beer was frozen three inches thick. 
The winterers were obliged to break the ice in pieces, 
and thaw it before the fire, when it made a very un- 
palatable liquor. On the 15th, having ascended one 
of the neighbouring mountains they could see only 
a small portion of the sun's disk on the verge of the 
horizon, and in a few days it entirely disappeared ; 
there was still a faint twilight of eight hours, which 
was soon reduced to five, and became every day 
shorter and shorter. In November the cold increased 
to the utmost pitch : they could not sleep in their 
beds, but were obliged either to crouch over the fire, 
or run full speed through the hut, to keep up the 
vital energy. At length they ranged all their couches 
round the fireplace and a stove, yet still found it ne- 
cessary to lay themselves down between the stove 
and the fire, holding their feet to the very embers. 
On the 20th December they saw a very bright illu- 
mination, resembling the Aurora Borealis, over the 
southern part of the sky. Tliey could not, however, 
believe it to be the real Aurora, which they after- 
ward saw of peculiar splendour in its proper place. 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 309 

Nig'ht and winter continued in their utmost intensity 
till the 22d January, when they ag*ain enjoyed a twi- 
light of six hours ; at midday of the 26th there was* 
no longer a star to be seen; but it was the 22d 
February ere, from a mountain-top, they could descry 
any portion of the sun's disk. Throughout the whole 
period they had dreadful contests to maintain with 
the Polar bear. On the 3d March one of these ani- 
mals had received two balls in the throat, which he 
was endeavouring to pluck out with his paws, when 
the whole seven sailors rushed on him with their 
lances. The bear dashed at one of them, tore the 
lance from his hand, and threw him on the ground : 
but as the animal was about to devour his victim, 
another sailor struck and obliged him to quit his hold ; 
afterward, however, though pursued by all the seven, 
he plunged into the sea and escaped. 

Thus these seven persons passed through this hard 
winter without any severe attack of scurvy ; and on 
the 27th May they were overjoyed by the view of a 
boat, which conveyed them to a neighbouring bay, 
where seven Dutch ships had assembled for the 
fishery. The active life led by these seamen was 
apparently the chief cause by which their health was 
so well preserved. 

The success of this experiment induced the Dutch 
Company to repeat the attempt in the following year, 
when seven other sailors, well furnished with victuals, 
and apparently with every means of withstanding 
the rigour of the climate, undertook to winter in 
Spitzbergen. They appear, however, to have been 
of a less active disposition than their predecessors, 
and failed in every attempt to procure fresh victuals. 
The sun having quitted them on the 20th October, 
they shut themselves up in their hut, out of which 
they scarcely ever stirred. In a few weeks they were 
attacked by scurvy under its most mahgnant form, 
which, amid this recluse life, and in the absence of 
fresh meat and vegetables, assumed continually a 



310 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHER V. 

more alarming tjrpe, till three died, whose bodies the 
others with difficulty enclosed in coffins. The sur- 

Tivors killed a dog and a fox, which afforded some 

relief, but not enough to arrest the progress of the 
malady. The bears began to approach the hut, and 
would have been a blessing, had the men retained 
strength either to shoot the animals or to drag home 
the carcass. Their mouths became ulcerated ; they 
were unable to chew their biscuit ; and only Jerome 
Carloen had power to rise from bed and kindle a fire. 
The sun appeared on the 24th February ; but they 
could no longer derive aid from this benignant lumi- 
nary. The last entry in their journal is in the fol- 
lowing terms : — " We are all four stretched on our 
beds, and are still alive, and would eat willingly, if 
any one of us were able to rise and light a fire. We 
implore the Almighty, with folded hands, to deliver 
us from this life, which it is impossible to prolong 
without food or any thing to warm our frozen limbs. 
None of us can help the other, each must support his 
own misery." — Early in spring the fishing vessels 
arrived, and a party hastened to the hut. They found 
it so fast closed, that an entrance could only be 
effected by opening the roof. They found it a 
tomb. Three of the men were enclosed in the coffins 
which had been framed for them ; the other four lay 
dead, two in their beds, and two on a piece of sail 
spread on the floor. These last had perished in con- 
sequence of mere inability to make the effort neces- 
sary for lifting and dressing the food ; and they had 
suffered convulsions so dreadful, that their knees and 
chin had come into contact, and their bodies resem- 
bled a rounded block. 

The Dutch about the same time made an attempt 
to establish a colony on the island of Jan Mayen, but 
with a result equally fatal. The journal of the un- 
fortunate seamen contains little except a very exact 
register of the weather. 

No farther attempts were made at that time to co- 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 311 

Ionize Spitzbergen. The next instance of wintering 
on those dreary shores arose from necessity and dis- 
aster. A Russian vessel, which had sailed from Arch- 
angel for the whale-fishery in 1743, being driven by 
the wind to the eastern coast of Spitzbergen, found 
itself beset amid floating ice without hope of deliver- 
ance. One of the party recollected that a hut had 
been erected on this coast by some of his countrymen, 
under the apprehension of being obliged to spend the 
winter there. He and three others set out to dis- 
cover the place. With much difficulty they reached 
the shore, leaping from fragment to fragment of 
moving ice ; then, spreading themselves in different 
directions, they found the cottage, which, though 
ruinous, afforded shelter for the night. Early in the 
morning they hastened to the shore, to convey to their 
comrades this happy intelligence. But what must 
have been their horror, when they saw only a vast 
open sea, without a vestige of the ship, or even of the 
numerous icebergs which had been tossing through 
the waves ! A violent gale had dispersed them all, 
and apparently also sunk the vessel, which was never 
heard of more. 

These four unfortunate seamen, abandoned on 
this dreadful shore, having the long winter to pass 
without food, or arms and implements to procure any, 
did not, however, give way to despair. They had a 
gun with which they shot twelve deer : then their 
ammunition failed; but some pieces of iron were 
found on the shore, which they contrived to fashion 
into pikes. At the moment when their stock of ve- 
nison was nearly exhausted, they found occasion to 
employ these weapons against a Polar bear by which 
they were assailed. The animal, being vanquished 
and killed after a formidable struggle, supplied for 
the present all their wants. His flesh was food, his 
skin clothing, his entrails, duly prepared, furnished 
the string, which alone had been wanting to com- 
plete a bow. With that instrument they were more 



312 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

than a match for the reindeer and the Arctic fox, 
with the spoils of which they filled both their pantry 
and their wardrobe ; and thenceforth they avoided, 
unless in cases of necessity, the encounter of the 
bear. Being destitute of cooking utensils, they 
were obliged to devour the food nearly raw — dried 
either by suspension in the smoke during the long 
winter, or by exposure to the heat of the sun during 
the short summer. Yet this regular supply of fresh 
meat, and, above all, the constant exercise to which 
necessity prompted, enabled them to preserve their 
health entire during six years, in which they looked 
in vain for deliverance. In this time they killed 10 
bears, 250 reindeer, and a multitude of foxes. At 
the end of the six years one of them died, when the 
three survivors sunk into despondence, giving up all 
hopes of relief, and looking forward to the moment 
when the last of them would become the prey of 
the bears. Suddenly, on the 15th August, 1749, they 
descried a vessel at sea. They lighted fires on the 
heights, hoisted a flag formed of reindeer skins, and 
were at length discovered by the ship, which proved 
to belong to their native country. They loaded her 
with such a quantity of skins and lard as enabled 
them to pay eighty rubles for their passage, and af- 
terward to make a profitable voyage. 

The example thus involuntarily set by these Rus- 
sian sailors has been followed, to a considerable ex- 
tent by their countrymen, some of whom have since 
regularly wintered in huts on the Spitzbergen coast, 
and employed themselves in chasing the walrus and 
seal along the shore, the deer and Arctic fox in the 
interior. They are constantly engaged in hunting, 
unless when interrupted by tempest ; and, even when 
the hut is blocked up with snow, they find their way 
out by the chimney. They have a reserve of salt 
provisions ; but as much as possible subsist on the 
flesh and drink the warm blood of the reindeer, dig- 
ging under the snow for cochlearia, sorrel, and other 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. Sid 

plants that act as antidotes to scurvy. By this regi- 
men they generally preserve their health completely 
uninjured, though the British seamen employed in 
whale-fishing have occasionally found the dead body 
of a Russian who had fallen a victim to this dread- 
ful malady. 

It is now time to give a general view of the mode 
of catching whales practised by the two great fish- 
ing nations of the present day, the British and the 
Dutch. 

The first object is to fit out a ship suited to the 
trade. While the fishery was carried on in bays, or 
on the exterior margin of icy fields, very slight fa- 
brics were suflicient ; but now that the vessels depart 
early in the season, and push into the very heart of 
the northern ices, they are liable every moment to 
the most severe shocks and concussions. The ship, 
therefore, must be constructed in such a manner as 
•to possess a peculiar degree of strength. Its ex- 
posed parts are secured with double or even treble 
timbers ; while it is fortified, as the expression is, 
externally with iron plates, and internally with stan- 
chions and cross-bars, so disposed as to cause the 
pressure on any one part to bear upon and be supported 
by the whole fabric. Mr. Scoresby recommends the 
dimension of 350 tons as the most eligible. A ship 
of this size is sometimes filled ; and the number of 
men required for its navigation, being also necessary 
for manning the boats employed in the fishery, could 
not be reduced even in a much smaller vessel. A 
larger tonnage than 350, being scarcely ever filled, 
involves the proprietor in useless extra expense. 
The Dutch are of opinion, that the vessels destined 
for this fishery should be 112 feet long, 29 broad, and 
12 deep, carrying seven boats, and from forty to fifty 
seamen. One of the most essential particulars is 
the crow's nest, a species of sentry-box made of 
canvass or light wood, pitched on the main-topmast, 
or top-gallantmast head. This is the post of ho- 
Dd 



314 NORTHERN \%- HALE-FISHERY. 

nour, and also of severe cold, where the master often 
sits for hours in a temperature thirty or forty degrees 
below the freezing-point, and whence he can descry 
all the movements of the surrounding seas and ice, 
and give directions accordingly. He is provided 
with a telescope, a speaking-trumpet, and a rifle, with 
which he can sometimes strike a narwal, as it floats 
around the ship. 

The whaling vessels usually take their departure 
in such time as to leave the Shetland Isles about 
the beginning of April ; and before the end of the 
month arrive within the Polar seas. It was long 
customary to spend a few weeks at what is called 
the Seafisher's Bight, extending along the coast of 
Greenland, ere they pushed into those more northern 
waters, where, amid fields and mountains of ice, the 
powerful and precious mysticetus is tossing ; but in 
later times, it has become usual to sail at once into 
that centre of danger and enterprise. 

As soon as they have arrived in those seas which 
are the haunt of the whale, the crew must be every 
moment on the alert, keeping watch day and night. 
The seven boats are kept hanging by the sides of the 
ship, ready to be launched in a few minutes ; and, 
where the state of the sea admits, one of them is 
usually manned and afloat. These boats are from 
25 to 28 feet long, about b\ feet broad, and constructed 
with a special view to lightness, buoyancy, and easy 
steerage. The captain or some principal officer, 
seated in the crow's nest, surveys the waters to a 
great distance, and the instant he sees the back of 
the huge animal, which they seek to attack, emerging 
from the waves, gives notice to the watch who are 
stationed on deck ; part of whom leap into a boat, 
which is instantly lowered down, and followed by a 
second, if the fish be a large one. Each of the boats 
has a harpooner, and one or two subordinate officers, 
and is provided with an immense quantity of rope 
coiled together and stowed in different quarters of 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 316 




1 Hand Harpoon. 2. Pricker. 3. Blubber Spade. 

4. Gun Harpoon. 5. Lance. 



316 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

it, the several parts being spliced together, so as to 
form a continued line, usually exceeding four thou- 
sand feet in length. To the end is attached the har- 
poon (Jig, 1), an instrument formed, not to pierce 
and kill the animal, but, by entering and remaining 
fixed in the body, to prevent its escape. One of the 
boats is now rowed towards the whale in the deepest 
silence, cautiously avoiding to give an alarm, of 
which he is very susceptible. Sometimes a circui- 
tous route is adopted in order to attack him from be- 
hind. Having approached as near as is consistent 
with safety, the harpooner darts his instrument into 
the back of the monster.* This is a critical mo- 
ment ; for when this mighty animal feels himself 
struck, he often throws himself into violent convul- 
sive movements, vibrating in the air his tremendous 
tail, one lash of which is sufficient to dash a boat in 
pieces. More commonly, however, he plunges with 
rapid flight into the depths of the sea, or beneath the 
thickest fields and mountains of ice. While he is 
thus moving at the rate usually of eight or ten miles 
an hour, the utmost diligence must be used that the 
line to which the harpoon is attached may run off 
smoothly and readily along with him. Should it be 
entangled for a moment, the strength of the whale 
is such, that he would draw the boat and crew after 
him under the waves. The first boat ought to be 
quickly followed up by a second to supply more line 
when the first is run out, which often takes place in 
eight or ten minutes. When the crew of a boat see 
the line in danger of being all run off, they hold up 
one, two, or three oars, to intimate their pressing 
need of a supply. At the same time they turn the 
rope once or twice round a kind of post called the 
bollard, by which the motion of the line and the ca- 
reer of the animal are somcAvhat retarded. This, 

* The harpoon is aomfttimes discharc;ed from a peculiar species of 
gun, in which case the (brra Jig. i is employed ; but this mode has not 
come into very general use. 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 317 

however, is a delicate operation, which brings the 
side of the boat down to the very edge of the water, 
and if the rope is drawn at all too tight, may sink it 
altogether. While the line is whirling round the 
bollard, the friction is so violent, that the har- 
pooner is enveloped in smoke, and water must be 
constantly poured on to prevent it from catching 
fire. When, after all, no aid arrives, and the crew 
find that the line must run out, they have only one 
resource, — they cut it, losing thereby not only 
the whale, but the harpoon and all the ropes of the 
boat. 

When the whale is first struck and plunges into 
the waves, the boat's crew elevate a flag as a signal 
to the watch on deck, who give the alarm to those 
asleep below, by stamping violently on the deck, and 
crying aloud — " A fall ! a fall /" (Dutch, vaU express- 
ing the precipitate haste with which the sailors 
throw themselves into the boats.) On this notice 
they do not allow themselves time to dress, but rusli 
out in their sleeping-shirts or drawers into an atmos- 
phere, the temperature of which is often below zero, 
carrying along with them their clothing in a bundle^ 
and trusting to make their toilette in the interval of 
manning and pushing off the boats. Such is the 
tumult at this moment, that young mariners have 
been known to raise cries of fear, thinking the sliip 
was going down. 

The period during which a wounded whale re- 
mains under water is various, but is averaged by Mr. 
Scoresby at about half an hour. Then, pressed by 
the necessity of respiration, he appears above, often 
considerably distant from the spot where he was har- 
pooned, and in a state of great exhaustion, which 
the same ingenious writer ascribes to the severe 
pressure that he has endured when placed beneath a 
column of water 700 or 800 fathoms deep. All the 
boats have meantime been spreading themselves in 
various directions, that one at least may be within a 
Dd2 



318 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

start, as it is called, or about 200 yards of the point 
of his rising, at which distance they can easily reach 
and pierce him with one or two more harpoons before 
he again descends, as he usually does for a few 
minutes. On his reappearance a general attack is 
made with lances {Jig. 5), which are struck as deep 
as possible, to reach and penetrate the vital parts. 
Blood mixed with oil streams copiously from his 
wounds and from the blow-holes, dying the sea to 
a great distance, and sprinkling, and sometimes 
drenching the boats and crews. The animal now 
becomes more and more exhausted; but, at the 
approach of his dissolution, he often makes a con- 
vulsive and energetic struggle, rearing his tail high 
in the air, and whirling it with a noise which is heard 
at the distance of several miles. At length, quite 
overpowered and exhausted, he lays himself on his 
side or back, and expires. The flag is then taken 
dow^n, and three loud huzzas raised from the sur- 
rounding boats. No time is lost in piercing the tail 
with two holes, through which ropes are passed, 
which, being fastened to the boats, drag the fish to 
the vessel amid shouts of joy. 

The whale being thus caught and secured to the 
sides of the ship, the next operation is that of Jlens- 
ingy or extracting the blubber and whalebone. This, 
if the full strength of the ship be put upon it, may 
be executed in about four hours, though a much 
longer time is often employed. The captain goes 
round and gives a dram to each seaman, with double 
allowance to important personages called the kings 
of the blubber (Dutch speck-koning), whose office it 
is to receive that precious commodity, and stow it 
in the hold. Another high functionary, called the 
specksioneer, has the direction of all the cutting 
oi)erations. The first step is to form round the fish, 
between the neck and the fins, a circle called the 
kenU around which all proceedings are to be con- 
ducted. To it is fastened a machinery of blocks, 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 319 

called the kent-purchase, by which, with the aid of 
a windlass, the body of the whale can be turned on 
all sides. The harpooners then, under the speck- 
sioneer's direction, begin with a kind of spade (Jig. 
3), and with huge knives, to make long parallel cuts 
from end to end, which are divided by cross-cuts into 
pieces of about half a ton. These are conveyed on 
deck, and, being reduced into smaller portions, are 
received by two kings, who stow them in the hold. 
Finally, being by other processes still farther divided, 
it is received into casks, and the packing completed 
by the instrument No. 2. As soon as the cutting 
officers have cleared the whole surface lying above 
water, which does not exceed a fourth or a fifth of 
the animal, the kent machinery is applied, and turns 
the carcass round, till another part, yet untouched, 
is presented. This being also cleared, the mass is 
again turned, and so on, till the whole has been ex- 
posed, and the blubber removed. The kent itself is 
then stripped, and the bones of the head being con- 
veyed on board, there remains only the kreng, a huge 
heap of fleshy and muscular substance, which is 
abandoned, either to sink, or be devoured by the 
flocks of ravenous birds and sharks which duly 
attend on this high occasion. The blubber, now 
deposited in the hold, is by various processes cleared 
of its impurities, cut into small pieces, and deposited 
in casks. While the Dutch establishment of Smee- 
renberg flourished, they extracted the oil in immense 
boilers, constructed there for this purpose ; but when 
the fishery was transferred to the icy banks in the 
open sea, this operation was necessarily ^deferred 
till the cargoes were deposited in the Dutch or 
British ports. 

The success of the fishery varies with the spot in 
which whales are found. The most advantageous 
that the Greenland seas afford has been considered 
to be on the border of those immense fields of ice, 
with which a great extent of them is covered. In 



320 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY 

the open sea, when a whale is struck, and phmges 
beneath the waters, he may rise in any part of a 
wide circuit, and at any distance from the boats ; so 
that, before a second harpoon can be struck, he may 
plunge again, and by continued struggles effect his 
extrication. But in descending beneath these im- 
mense fields, he is hemmed in by the icy floor above, 
and can only find an atmosphere to breathe by 
returning to their outer boundary. The space in 
which he can rise is thus contracted from a large 
circle to a semicircle, or even smaller segment. 
Hence a whale in this position is attacked with much 
better chance of success ; even two may be pursued 
at the same moment,— a measure which, in the open 
sea, often involves the loss of both. In the flourish- 
ing state of the Dutch fishery, a hundred of their 
vessels have been seen at once ranged on the margin 
of one of those immense fields, along which the boats 
formed so continuous a line that no whale could rise 
without being immediately struck. This situation, 
at the same time, is attended with considerable danger 
from the disruptions and concussions to which these 
plains are liable. 

When the ship is surrounded with floating frag- 
ments of ice, the fishery, though difficult, is usually 
productive. But the case is very different when 
these pieces are packed together into a mass im- 
pervious to ships or boats, yet leaving numerous 
holes or openings, through which the whale can 
mount and respire, without coming to the open 
margin, or within reach of his assailants. The fish- 
ers, when they see the whale blowing through one 
of these apertures, must alight on the ice, and run 
full speed to the spot with lance and harpoon. At- 
tack in such circumstances, however, is both diffi. 
cult and perilous ; and even when the whale is killed, 
the dragging of his body either under or over the 
ice to the ship is a most tedious and laborious task, 
which sometimes cannot be effected without cutting 
the carcass in piece* 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 321 

When the great fields, in the progress of the sea- 
sson, become open at various points, the fishery be- 
comes liable to the same evils as occur among packed 
ice. Still vi^orse is the case wfien the sea is over- 
spread with that thin newly-formed crust called bay- 
ice. The whale easily finds or beats a hole through 
this covering, while neither can the boats penetrate, 
nor the men walk over it, without the most immi- 
nent danger. Yet Mr. Scoresby mentions a plan by 
which he continued to carry on his movements, even 
over a very slender surface of bay-ice. He tied to- 
gether his whole crew, and made them thus walk 
in a long line one behind another. There never fell 
in above four or five at a time, who were easily 
helped out by the rest. The sufferers had a dram to 
console them after their cold plunge ; and the com- 
pensation was considered so ample, that Jack was 
suspected of sometimes allowing himself to drop in 
with the view of being thus indemnified. 

Another grand distinction respects, first, the Green- 
land fishery, which, generally speaking, is that al- 
ready described, and is chiefly distinguished by the 
immense fields of ice which cover the ocean ; and, 
secondly, the Davis's Strait fishery, where that ele- 
ment appears chiefly in the form of moving moun- 
tains, tossing through the deep. This last is arduous 
and dangerous, but usually productive. It com- 
menced at a comparatively late period, since it is 
not mentioned by the Dutch writers prior to 1719 ; 
and Mr. Scoresby has been unable to ascertain the 
date when it was begun by the British. Within 
these few years it has experienced a remarkable ex- 
tension, of which a full Bx^count will be given in the 
course of this chapter- 

The dangers of the whale-fishery, in spite of the 
utmost care, and under the direction even of the 
most experienced mariners, are imminent and ma- 
fiifold. 

The most obvious peril is that of the ship being 



322 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

beset and sometimes dashed to pieces by the approach 
and collision of those mighty fields and mountains 
of ice with which those seas are continually filled. 
The Dutch writers mention many of these ship- 
wrecks, among" which the following are the most re- 
markable. 

Didier Albert Raven, in 1639, when on the bor- 
der of the Spitzbergen ice, was assailed by a furious 
tempest. Though the ship was violently agitated, 
he succeeded in steering her clear of the great bank, 
and thought himself in comparative safety, when 
there appeared before him two immense bergs, upon 
which the wind was violently driving his vessel. He 
endeavoured, by spreading all his sails, to penetrate 
between them; but in tliis attempt the ship was 
borne against one with so terrible a shock, that it 
was soon felt to be sinking. By cutting the masts 
the mariners enabled her to proceed ; yet, as she con- 
tinued to take in water, several boats were launched, 
which, being over-crowded, sunk, and all on board 
perished. Those left in the ship found their condi- 
tion more and more desperate. The forepart of 
the vessel being deep in the water, and the keel 
rising almost perpendicular, made it extremely diffi- 
cult to avoid falling into the sea ; while a mast, to 
which a number had clung, broke, plunged down, 
and involved them in the fate of their unfortunate 
companions. At length, the stern separated from 
the rest of the vessel, carrying with it several more 
of the sailors. The survivors still clung to the 
wretched fragments, but one after another was 
washed off by the fury of the waves, while some, half 
dead with cold, and unable to retain their grasp of 
the ropes and anchors, dropped in. The crew of 
eighty-six was thus reduced to twenty-nine, when 
the ship suddenly changed its position, and assumed 
one in which they could more easily keep their fool- 
ing on board. The sea then calmed, and during 
the respite thus afforded thev felt an irresistible pi\/- 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 323 

pensity to sleep ; but to some it was the fatal sleep 
of extreme cold, from which they never awoke. 
One man suggested the construction of a raft, which 
was accordingly framed, contrary to the captain's 
advice ; happily, no sooner was it launched than the 
waves swallowed it up. The remnant of the vessel 
encountered next night another severe gale ; and the 
sufferings of the crew, from cold, hunger, and burn- 
ing thirst, were so extreme, that death in every form 
seemed now to have encompassed them. In the 
morning, however, a sail was descried, their siguals 
were understood, and being taken on board, twenty 
survivors, after forty-eight hours of this extreme 
distress, were restored to safety. 

In 1670 the Blecker (Bleacher), Captain Pit, was 
driven against the ice with such violence, that in an 
instant all her rigging was dashed in pieces. Soon 
after, twenty-nine of the crew quitted the vessel, and, 
leaping by the help of poles and perches from 
one fragment of ice to another, contrived to reach 
the main field. The captain with seven men re- 
mained on board, and endeavoured to open a pas- 
sage ; but soon after the ship again struck, when they 
were obliged to go into a boat, and commit them- 
selves to chance, the snow falling so thick that they 
could scarcely see each other. As the weather 
cleared, they discovered their companions on the ice, 
who threw a whale-line, and dragged them to the 
same spot. There, the party having waited twelve 
hours in hopes of relief, at length trusted themselves 
to the boats, and in twelve hours were taken up by 
a Dutch vessel. 

Captain Bille, in 1675, lost a ship richly laden, 
which went down suddenly; after which the crew 
wandered in boats over the sea for fourteen days 
before they were taken up. Thirteen other vessels 
perished that year in the Spitzbergen seas. Three 
seasons afterward Captain Bille lost a second ship 
by the violent concussion of the ice, the crew having* 



324 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHHRT. 

just time to save themselves on a frozen field. At 
the moment of their disaster they were moored to a 
large floe, along with another, a brig called the Red 
Fox; which last shortly afterward underwent a 
similar fate, being struck with such violence, that the 
whole, hull and masts together, disappeared almost 
in an instant, — the sailors, like Captain Bille's com- 
pany, having had merely time to leap on the ice* 
The united crews now adopted various plans ; some 
keeping their station, others setting out in boats in 
different directions ; but all, in one way or other, 
reached home. The same year the Concord went 
down in an equally sudden manner ; but the crew 
were happily taken up by a neighbouring ship. 

The whale-fishery is not more distinguished fot 
examples of sudden peril and besetment than for 
unexpected deliverance from the most alarming 
situations. 

Three Dutch ships, in 1676, after having completed 
a rich cargo on the northern coast of Spitzbergen, 
were at once so completely beset, that the crews in 
general urged the necessity of proceeding over the 
ice, and endeavouring to reach some other vessel. 
Ouvekees, however, captain of one of the three, 
strongly urged the obligation of doing all in their 
power to preserve such valuable property, and they 
agreed to make a farther trial ; when, in twenty days, 
the ice opened, and they had a happy voyage home- 
ward. 

The Dame Maria Elizabeth, in 1769, had set out 
early for the fishery, and was so fortunate as, by the 
30th of May, to have taken fourteen whales. Then, 
however, a violent gale from the south blew in the 
ice with such violence, that the captain found him- 
self completely beset, and saw two Dutch vessels 
and one English go to pieces at a little distance. At 
length a brisk gale from the north gave him the hope 
of being extricated ; when presently he was involved 
in. a dense fog, which froze so thick upon the saila^ 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERTT. 325 

and rigging, that the ship appeared a mere floating 
iceberg. As the atmosphere cleared, the faint lights 
and the birds winging their way to the southward^ 
announced the closing in of winter. Unable to make 
any progress, the seamen looked forward in despair 
to the prospect of spending the season in that frozen 
latitude. They had nearly come to the end of their 
provisions, and famine was already staring them in 
the face, when they thought of broiling the whales' 
tails, which proved very eatable, and even salutary 
against the scurvy. Thus they hoped to exist till the 
middle of February, beyond which the prospect was 
very dismal ; but on the 12th November there arose 
a violent north wind, which dispersed the ice. Their 
hopes being now awakened, every effort was strained ; 
and on the 18th a north-wester brought on so heavy 
a rain, that next day they were entirely clear of the 
ice, and had a prosperous voyage homeward. 

The year 1777 was one which exhibited, on the 
greatest scale, all the vicissitudes of this occupation. 
Captain Broerties, in the Guillamine, arrived that 
year on the 22d June at the great bank of northern 
ice, where he found fifty vessels moored and busied 
in the fishery. He began it prosperously : the very 
next day indeed he killed a large whale. The day 
after, a tempest drove in the ice with such violence 
that twenty-seven of the ships were beset, of which 
ten were lost. Broerties, on the 25th July, seeing 
some appearance of an opening, caused the Guilla- 
mine to be warped through by the boats ; but, after 
four days' labour, she found herself, with four other 
ships, in a narrow basin, enclosed by icy barriers on 
every side. The captain, foreseeing the danger of 
permanent besetraent, obliged the crew to submit to 
a diminution of their rations. 

On the 1st August the ice began to gather thick, 
and a violent storm driving it against the vessels, 
placed them in the greatest peril for a number of days. 
On the 20th a dreadful gale arose from the north- 



326 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

east, in which the Guillamine suffered very conside- 
rable damage. In this awful tempest, out of the five 
ships two went down, while a third had sprung a 
number of leaks. The crews were taken on board 
of the two remaining barks, which they greatly in 
commoded. On the 25th all the three were com 
pletely frozen in, when it was resolved to send a 
party of twelve men to seek aid from four vessels 
which a few days before had been driven into a sta- 
tion at a little distance ; but by the time of their 
arrival two of these had been dashed to pieces, and 
the other two were in the most deplorable condition. 
Two Hamburgh ships, somewhat farther removed, 
had perished in a similar manner. Meantime the 
former came in sight of Gale Hamkes' Land, in 
Greenland, and the tempest still pushing them gra- 
dually to the southward, Iceland at length appeared 
on their left. The two more distant ones, com- 
manded by Dirk Broer and Roel of Meyer, found a 
little opening, through which they contrived to escape. 
The crews of the three others were beginning to 
hope that they might at last be equally fortunate, 
when, on the 13th September, a whole mountain of 
ice fell upon the Guillamine. The men, half naked, 
leaped out upon the frozen surface, saving with 
difficulty a small portion of their provisions. The 
broken remnants of the vessel were soon buried 
under enormous piles of ice. Of the two other 
ships, one commanded by Jeldert Janz had just met 
a similar fate, and there remained only that of Jans 
Castricum, to which all now looked for refuge. By 
leaping from one fragment of ice to another, the 
men, not without danger, contrived to reach this 
vessel, which, though in extreme distress, received 
them on board. Shattered and overcrowded, she was 
obliged immediately after to accommodate fifty other 
seamen, the crew of the Janz Christiaanz of Ham- 
burgh, which had just gone down, the chief har- 
pooner and twelve of the mariners having perished 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 327 

These numerous companies, squeezed into the crazy 
bark of Castricum, suffered every kind of distress. 
Famine, in its most direful forms, began to stare them 
in the face. All remoter fears, however, gave way, 
when on the 11th October, the vessel went to pieces 
in the same sudden manner as the others, leaving to 
the unfortunate sailors scarcely time enough to leap 
upon the ice with their remaining stores. With great 
difficulty they reached a field of some extent, and 
contrived with their torn sails to rear a sort of co- 
vering ; but, sensible that, by remaining on this deso- 
late spot, they must certainly perish, they saw no 
safety except in scrambling over the frozen surface 
to the coast of Greenland, which was in view. With 
infinite toil they effected their object, and happily 
met some inhabitants, who received them hospitably, 
and regaled them with dried fish and seals' flesh. 
Thence they pushed across that dreary region, treated 
sometimes well, sometimes churlishly ; but by one 
means or other they succeeded at length, on the 13th 
March, in reaching the Danish settlement of Frede- 
rikshaab. Here they were received with the utmost 
kindness , and, being recruited from their fatigues, 
took the first opportunity of embarking for Denmark, 
whence they afterward sailed to their native country. 

The Davis's Strait fishery has also been marked 
with very frequent and fatal shipwrecks. In 1814 
the Royalist, Captain Edmonds, perished with all her 
crew; and in 1817, the London, Captain Mathews, 
shared the same fate. The only account of either 
of these ships ever received was from Captain Ben- 
net of the Venerable, who, on the l5th April, saw 
the London in a tremendous storm, lying to wind- 
ward of an extensive chain of icebergs, among 
which, it is probable she was dashed to pieces that 
very evening. Large contributions were raised at 
Hull for the widows and families of the seamen who 
had suffered on these melancholy occasions. 

Among accidents on a smaller scale, one of the 



328 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY; 

most frequent is, that of boats employed in pursuit 
of the whale being overtaken by deep fogs or storms 
of snow, which separate them from the ship, and 
never allow them to regain it. A fatal instance of 
this kind occurred to the Ipswich, Captain Gordon ; 
four of whose boats, after a whale had been caught, 
and even brought to the ship's side, were employed 
on a piece of ice hauling in the line, when a storm 
suddenly arose, caused the vessel to drift away, and 
prevented her, notwithstanding the utmost efforts, 
from ever coming within reach of the unfortunate 
crews who composed the greater part of her esta- 
blishment. Mr. Scoresby mentions several casual- 
ties of the same nature which occurred to his boats' 
companies, all of whom, however, in the end, hap 
pily found their way back. One of the most alarm 
ing cases was that of fourteen men who were left 
on a small piece of floating ice, with a boat wholly 
unable to withstand the surrounding tempest; but 
amid their utmost despair they fell in with the Lively 
of Whitby, and were most cordially received on 
board. 

The source, however, of the most constant alarm 
to the whale-fisher is connected with the movements 
of that powerful animal, against which, with most 
unequal strength, he ventures to contend. Gene- 
rally, indeed, the whale, notwithstanding his im- 
mense strength, is gentle, and even passive ; seeking, 
even when he is most hotly pursued, to escape from 
his assailants, by plunging into the lowest depths of 
the ocean. Sometimes, however, he exerts his 
utmost force in violent and convulsive struggles; 
and every thing with which, when thus enraged, he 
comes into collision, is dissipated or destroyed in an 
instant. The Dutch writers mention Jacquez Vienkes 
of the Gort Moolen (Barley Mill), who, after a whale 
had been struck, was hastening with a second boat 
to the support of the first. The fish, however, rose, 
and with its head struck the boat so furiously, that 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 329 

it was shivered to pieces, and Vienkes was thrown 
with its fragments on the back of the huge animal. 
Even then this bold mariner darted a second har- 
pooti into the body of his victim ; but unfortunately 
he got entangled in the line and could not extricate 
himself, while the other party were unable to ap- 
proach near enough to save him. At last, however, 
the harpoon was disengaged, and he swam to the 
boat. 

Mr. Scoresby, in one of his earliest voyages, saw 
a boat thrown several yards into the air, from which 
it fell on its side, plunging the crew into the sea. 
They were happily taken up, when only one was 
found to have received a severe contusion. Captain 
Lyons of the Raith of Leith, on the Labrador coast, 
in 1802, had a boat thrown fifteen feet into the air ; 
it came down into the water with its keel upwards, 
yet all the men except one were saved. 

The crew of Mr. Scoresby the elder, in 1807, had 
struck a whale, which soon reappeared, but in a 
state of such violent agitation that no one durst ap- 
proach it. The captain courageously undertook to 
encounter it in a boat by himself, and succeeded in 
striking a second harpoon ; but another boat having 
advanced too close, the animal brandished its tail 
with so much fury, that the harpooner, who was di- 
rectly under, judged it most prudent to leap into the 
sea. The tail then struck the very place that he 
had left, and cut the boat entirely asunder, with the 
exception of two planks, which were saved by hav- 
ing a coil of ropes laid over them ; so that had he 
remained, he must have been dashed to pieces. 
Happily all the others escaped injury. The issues, 
however, were not always so fortunate. The Aim- 
well of Whitby in 1810, lost three men out of seven, 
and, in 1812, the Henrietta of the same port lost 
four out of six, by the boats being upset, and the 
crews thrown into the sea. 

In 1809, one of the men belonging to the Resolu- 
Ee2 



330 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

tion of Whitby, struck a sucking whale ; after which 
the mother, being seen wheehng rapidly round the 
spot, was eagerly watched. Mr. Scoresby, being on 
this occasion in the capacity of harpooner in another 
boat, was selecting a situation for the probable re- 
appearance of the parent fish, when suddenly an in- 
visible blow stove in fifteen feet of the bottom of 
his barge, which filled with water and instantly sunk. 
The crew were saved. 

Entanglement in the line, while the retreating 
whale is drawing it off with rapidity, is often pro- 
ductive of great disaster. A sailor belonging to the 
John of Greenock, in 1818, having happened to step 
into the centre of a coil of running rope, had a foot 
entirely carried off, and was obliged to have the 
lower part of the leg amputated. A harpooner, be- 
longing to the Henrietta of Whitby, had incautiously 
cast some part of the line under his feet ; when a 
sudden dart of the fish made it twist round his body. 
He had just time to cry out, — " Clear away the line ! 
O dear !" when he was cut almost asunder, dragged 
overboard, and never more seen. 

A whale sometimes causes danger by proving to 
be alive after having exhibited every symptom of 
death. Mr. Scoresby mentions the instance of one 
which appeared so decidedly dead, that he himself 
had leaped on the tail, and was busy putting a rope 
through it, when he suddenly felt the animal sink- 
ing from beneath him. He made a spring towards 
a boat that was some yards distant, and, grasping 
the gunwale, was assisted on board. The fish then 
moved forwards, reared his tail aloft, and shook it 
with such prodigious violence, that it resounded to 
the distance of several miles. After two or three 
minutes of this violent exertion, he rolled on his 
side and expired. 

Even after life is extinct, all danger is not over. 
In the operation of flensing, the harpooners some- 
times fall into the whale's mouth, with the immi- 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 331 

nent danger of being drowned. In the case of a 
heavy swell they are drenched, and sometimes 
washed over by the surge. Occasionally they have 
their ropes broken, and are wounded by each other's 
knives. Mr. Scoresby mentions a harpooner who, 
after the flensing was completed, happened to have 
his foot attached by a hook to the kreng or carcass, 
when the latter was inadvertently cut away. The 
man caught hold of the gunwale of the boat; but 
the whole immense mass was now suspended by his 
body, occasioning the most excruciating torture, and 
even exposing him to the danger of being torn asun- 
der, when his companions contrived to hook the 
kreng with a grapnel, and bring it back to the sur- 
face. 

The whale, in attempting to escape, sometimes 
exerts prodigious strength, and inflicts upon its pur- 
suers not only danger, but the loss of their property. 
In 1812, a boat's crew belonging to the Resolution 
of Whitby struck a whale on the margin of a floe. 
Supported by a second boat, they felt much at their 
ease, there being scarcely an instance in which the 
assistance of a third was required in such circum- 
stances. Soon, however, a signal was made for 
more line, and as Mr. Scoresby was pushing with 
his utmost speed, four oars were raised in signal 
of the utmost distress. The boat was now seen 
with its bow on a level with the water, while the 
harpooner, from the friction of the line, was enve- 
loped in smoke. At length, when the relief was 
within a hundred yards, the crew were seen to 
throw their jackets upon the nearest ice, and then 
leap into the sea; after which the boat rose into 
the air, and, making a majestic curve, disappeared 
beneath the waters, with all the line attached to it. 
The crew were saved. A vigorous pursuit was im- 
mediately commenced ; and the whale, being traced 
through narrow and intricate channels, was disco- 
vered considerably to the eastward, when three har- 



332 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

poons were darted at him. The line of two other 
boats was then run out, when, by an accidental en- 
tanglement, it broke, and enabled the whale to carry 
oflf in all about four miles of rope, which, with the 
boat, were valued at 150/. The daring fishers again 
gave chase ; the whale was seen, but missed. A third 
time it appeared, and was reached ; two more har- 
poons were struck, and the animal being plied with 
lances, became entirely exhausted, and yielded to 
its fate. It had by that time drawn out 10,440 yards, 
or about six miles of line. Unluckily, through the 
disengagement of a harpoon, a boat and thirteen 
lines, nearly two miles in length, were detached and 
never recovered. 

Whale-fishers sometimes meet with agreeable 
surprises. The crew of the ship Nautilus had cap- 
tured a fish, which being disentangled and drawn 
to the ship, some of them were employed to haul in 
the line. Suddenly they felt it pulled away as if 
by another whale, and having made signals for 
more line, were soon satisfied, by the continued 
movements, that this was the case. At length a 
large one rose up close to them, and was quickly 
killed. It then proved, that the animal, while morlng 
through the waters, had received the rope into its 
open mouth, and, struck by the unusual sensation, 
held it fast between its jaws, and thus became the 
prey of his enemy. — The Prince of Brazils of Hull 
had struck a small fish, which sunk apparently dead. 
The crew applied all their strength to heave it up ; 
but sudden and violent jerks on the line convinced 
them that it was still alive. They persevered, and 
at length brought up two fishes in succession, one of 
tvhich had many turns of the rope wound round its 
body. Having been entangled under water, it had, 
in its attempt to escape, been more and more impli- 
cated, till, in the end, it shared the fate of its com- 
panion. 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 333 

A view of the whale-fishery, as it existed prior to 
1820, has thus been drawn from ample and authen- 
tic materials afforded by the Dutch and other ear- 
lier writers, as well as by the valuable work of the 
younger Mr. Scoresby. Having understood, how- 
ever, that within the last few years the trade has 
been turned into several new channels, we applied 
to certain intelligent individuals in the principal ports, 
from whom we have obtained such valuable infor- 
mation as enables us to bring down the history of 
its operations to the very latest period. 

A remarkable change has lately taken place as to 
the waters in which the fishery is carried on. For 
more than a century it was confined to the space be- 
tween Spitzbergen and Greenland, commonly called 
the Greenland Sea. Early in the eighteenth century 
Davis's Strait began to be frequented, and the ships 
sent thither gradually increased in number. A 
somewhat more ample return, in fact, was drawn 
from those western seas, though Mr. Scoresby con- 
ceives that the longer and more expensive voyage, 
and the increased hazards, fully counterbalanced this 
advantage. When he wrote, the Greenland fishery 
was still the most considerable, and the ships pro- 
ceeding thither were in the proportion of three to 
two of those sent to Davis's Strait. Since that time 
its produce has sustained a remarkable diminution ; 
the whales which, during the course of two centuries, 
had been gradually retiring from place to place, have 
at last sought refuge in the remote and inaccessible 
depths of the icy sea. Hence this fishery has been 
almost abandoned ; having employed, in 1829, only 
one vessel, though in 1830 the number has been in- 
creased to four. For this almost entire loss of their 
original ground, the whalers have been compensated 
by the new and more extensive field opened up to 
them on the western coast. The important expedi- 
tions sent out by government under Ross and Parry 
have made them acquainted with a number of ad- 



334 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

mirable stations on the farther side of Davis's Strait 
and in the higher latitudes of Baffin's Bay, which 
were before little known, and scarcely ever fre- 
quented. They now, therefore, prosecute their 
fishery almost exclusively in those seas, and follow 
a method which is in many respects different. 

The vessels destined for that quarter sail usually 
in March, though some delay their departure till the 
middle or even the end of April. They proceed 
first to the northern parts of the coast of Labrador, 
or to the mouth of Cumberland Strait, carrying on 
what is called the South-west fishery. After remain- 
ing there till about the beginning of May, they cross 
to the eastern shore of the Strait, and fish upwards 
along the coast, particularly in South-east Bay, 
North-east Bay, Kingston Bay or Horn Sound. 
About the month of July, they usually cross Baffin's 
Bay to Lancaster Sound, which they sometimes 
enter, and occasionally even ascend Barrow's Strait 
twenty or thirty miles. In returning, they fish down 
the western shore, where their favourite stations are 
Pond's Bay, Agnes's Monument, Home Bay, and 
Cape Searle. If the ships be not previously filled, 
they commonly remain till the end of September, 
and in some instances persevere till late in October. 
Our informant at Peterhead mentions a vessel from 
that port which was clean on the last day of Septem- 
ber; yet the captain proceeded with such spirit 
and resolution, that after this date he caught five 
whales, making his cargo equal to the average of the 
year, and reached home by the 27th October. 

The vessels for Greenland sail about the beginning 
of April, and return frequently in July, seldom re- 
maining on tlie fishing-ground beyond the end of 
August. 

The Davis's Strait fishery has always been sub- 
ject to remarkable casualties, which have been still 
farther increased since the vessels took a wider 
range, and ventured into the higher and more frozer 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 335 

latitudes. Our correspondent at Aberdeen states, 
that, — 

In 1819, out of 63 ships there were lost 10 

. . 1821, ... .79 11 

. . 1822, .... 60 ... 7 

These wrecks have generally occurred in conse- 
quence of the ships being beset in their attempt to 
pass from the eastern coast to Lancaster Sound, 
across that great barrier of ice which fills the centre 
of Baffin's Bay. The sides of the vessels have 
sometimes been pressed together ; at other times they 
have been squeezed out of the water and laid upon 
the ice. But experience seems to have enabled the 
mariners to guard, in some degree, against these 
dangers. Last year, of eighty-nine ships sent out 
to this fishery, only four were lost ; namely, the 
Dauntless, Bramham, of Hull ; the Rookwood, Law- 
son, of London ; the Jane, Bruce, of Aberdeen ; the 
Home Castle, Stewart, of Leith. 

Several of these shipwrecks have been attended 
with very peculiar circumstances. In 1825, the 
Active, Captain Gray, of Peterhead, was so com- 
pletely beset in Exeter Sound, that on the 1st 
October, the crew were obliged to abandon her and 
take a passage in other ships. Next year a vessel, 
sent out to ascertain her fate, found her on the 
beach, at a little distance from the place of beset- 
ment, completely uninjured. She was got off in a 
few days, and brought home with her cargo to Pe- 
terhead, where she arrived on the 12th September. 

In 1826, the Dundee, Captain Dawson, of London, 
having ventured into the higher parallels of Baffin's 
Bay, was, in 74°. 30' north latitude, so completely 
beset and enclosed Within impenetrable barriers, that 
the crew could obtain no assistance from the other 
ships. To add to their distress, a Dutch vessel near 
them was completely wrecked ; and the men, to the 



336 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

number of forty-six, came on board entirely desti- 
tute. They were supported from the 23d August to 
the 6th October, when they set out in their boats to 
endeavour to reach the Danish settlement of Levely ; 
but as this was 350 miles distant, much doubt was 
entertained if they would ever arrive at their des- 
tination. The crew of the Dundee, reduced to 
extreme distress by the want of provisions, succeeded 
in killing some seals and bears, on whose coarse 
flesh they were thankful to sustain life. On the 1st 
February they caught a whale, and on the 16th a 
second, which afforded great relief, especially as 
other fishes were attracted by the desire to feed on 
the (jarcass of this huge animal. Unfortunately for 
their repose, the sea was not so completely frozen 
but that enormous icebergs were still tossing through 
it with thundering noise, tearing up the fields by 
which the ship was surrounded. On the 22d Feb- 
ruary, one of uncommon magnitude was seen bear- 
ing directly upon their stern, its collision with which 
appeared inevitable ; whereupon the seamen snatch- 
ing their clothes, leaped out upon the ice, and ran 
to some distance. The iceberg rolled on with a 
tremendous crash, breaking the field into fragments, 
and hiding from their view the ship, which they ex- 
pected never to see again ; but happily it passed by, 
and the Dundee appeared from behind it uninjured ; 
a spectacle that was hailed with three enthusiastic 
cheers. The mariners lost sight of the sun for 
seventy-five days, during which they suffered such 
severe cold, that they could not walk the deck for 
five minutes without being frost-bitten. Luckily, 
they were able to pick up a quantity of spars and 
staves belonging to the Dutch wreck, which afforded 
a supply of fuel, otherwise they must have perished 
from the intensity of the frost. By great good for- 
tune, too, the body of ice in which they were enclosed 
drifted to the southward more than eleven degrees 
rfrom 74° 30', down to 63°), or about 800 miles, and 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 337 

was thus brought nearly to the mouth of Davis's 
Strait. On the 1st April, when the Lee, Captain 
Lee, of Hull, had just commenced her fishing, the 
crew were agreeably surprised by meeting the Dun- 
dee, whose catastrophe had excited the greatest in- 
terest at home; they supplied her liberally with 
provisions, and every necessary for enabling her to 
reach Britain. The vessel was accordingly liberated 
on the 16th April, and on the 2d June arrived off 
Shetland, whence intelligence was immediately 
spread of this happy deliverance. 

One of the most affecting shipwrecks which ever 
occurred in the northern seas was that of the Jean, 
of Peterhead, in 1826. Of this we can give a full 
account from an interesting narrative by Mr. Gum- 
ming, the surgeon, an eye-witness and sharer of the 
calamity. This vessel sailed on the 15th March, 
having on board only twenty-eight men, bwt received 
at Lerwick a complement of twenty-three natives of 
Shetland ; owing to which arrangement, as well as 
by contrary winds, she was detained till the 28th. 
From the evening of that day to the 1st April, the 
ship encountered very stormy weather, which she 
successfully withstood, and was then steered into 
those western tracts of the Greenland sea which are the 
most favourable for the capture of the seal. On the 
14th, in the latitude of 68°, the fishery began most 
prosperously. In one day the seamen killed 1138 
seals, and the entire number caught in five days 
exceeded 3070. This scene, however, could not be 
contemplated without some painful impressions. 
The seals attacked were only the young, as they lay 
fearlesslv reposing on the ice, before they had yet 
attempted to plunge into the watery element. One 
blow of the club stunned them completely. The view 
of hundreds of creatures bearing some resemblance to 
the human form, writhing in the agonies of death, 
and the deck streaming with their gore, was at once 
df stressing and disgusting to a spectator of any feel- 
F f 



338 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

ing. However, this evil soon gave way to others of 
a more serious nature. 

On the morning of the 18th April the sailors had 
begun their fishery as usual ; but a breeze sprung up, 
and obliged them by eleven o'clock to suspend ope- 
rations. The gale continually freshened, and was 
the more unpleasant from their being surrounded 
with loose ice, which a dense and heavy fog made it im- 
possible to distinguish at any distance. The mariners 
took in all sail, but did not apprehend danger till six 
in the evening, when the wind, which had been con- 
tinually increasing, began to blow with tenfold fury. 
All that the narrator had ever heard, of the united 
sounds of thunder, tempest, and waves, seemed faint 
when compared with the stunning roar of this hurri- 
cane. At eight the ship was borne upon a stream 
of ice, from which she received several severe con- 
cussions ; the consequence of which was that at ten 
the water began to enter, and at twelve no exertion 
in pumping could prevent her from being gradually 
filled. 

At one in the morning she became completely 
waterlogged. She then fell over on her beam-ends, 
when the crew, giving themselves up for lost, clung 
to the nearest object for immediate safety. By judi- 
ciously cutting away the main and fore masts, they 
happily enabled the ship to right herself, when being 
drifted into a stream of ice, she was no longer in 
danger of immediate sinking. The whole hull, how- 
ever, was inundated and indeed immersed in water, 
except a portion of the quarter-deck, upon which 
the whole crew were now assembled. Here they 
threw up an awning of sails to shelter themselves 
from the cold, which had beoome so intense as to 
threaten the extinction of life. Those endowed 
with spirit and sense kept up the vital power by brisk 
movement ; but the natives of Shetland, who are 
accused on such occasions of sinking into a selfish 
despondency, piled themselves together in a heapv 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 339 

with the view of deriving warmth from each other's 
bodies. Those in the interior of the mass obtained 
thus a considerable temperature, though accompanied 
with severe pressure ; and blows were given, and 
even knives drawn, to gain and to preserve this ad- 
vantageous position. On the 19th, one Shetlander 
died of cold, another on the 20th, and a third on the 
21st, — events felt by the others as peculiarly gloomy, 
cihiefly, it is owned, as forming a presage of their 
own impending fate. 

On the 22d the sun began to appear amid showers 
of snow ; and the 23d was ushered in by fine weather 
and a clear sky. The opinions of the crew were 
now divided as to what course they should steer in 
search of deliverance. Two plans were suggested. 
They could either stretch northward into the fishing 
stations, where they might expect, sooner or later, to 
meet some of their countrymen, by whom they 
would be received on board ; or they might sail 
southward towards Iceland, and throw themselves 
on the hospitality of its inhabitants. The former 
plan was in several respects the more promising, es- 
pecially as a vessel had been in sight when the storm 
arose. But its uncertainties were also very great. 
They might traverse for weeks those vast icy seas, 
amid cold always increasing, and with imminent 
danger of being swallowed up by the waves. Ice- 
land was distant, but it was a definite point ; and 
upon this course they at last wisely determined. 
Several days were spent in fitting out their two re- 
maining boats — all the others having been swept 
away — and in fishing up from the interior of the 
vessel every article which could be turned to account. 
During this operation, the weather continuing fine, 
they could not forbear admiring the scene by which 
they were surrounded. The sea was formed as it 
were into a beautiful little frith, by the ice rising 
around in the most varied and fantastic forms, some- 
times even assuming the appearance of cities adorne*! 



340 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

with towers and forests of columns. Continual 
efforts were necessary, meantime, to keep the wreck 
on the icy field ; for had it slipped over into the sea, of 
which there appeared a strong probability, it would 
have gone down at once. By the 26th the boats were 
completely ready, having on board a small stock of 
provisions, and a single change of linen. At half- 
past one in the morning of the 27th, the mariners 
took leave, with some sorrow, of the vessel, which 
" seemed a home even in ruins," leaving the deck 
strewed with clothes, books, and provisions, to be 
swallowed up by the ocean as soon as the icy floor 
on which it rested should melt away. 

The two boats, having received forty-seven men 
on board, lay very deep in the water ; so that when 
a smart breeze arose, the men were obliged to throw 
away their spare clothing and every thing else which 
could be wanted, and soon saw their little wardrobe 
floating on the face of the sea. The leaky state of 
one of the barges entailed the necessity of hauling 
it on a piece of ice to be repaired. The seamen 
were frequently obliged also to drag them both over 
large fields, and again to launch them. However, 
a favourable wind in ten hours enabled them to make 
forty-one miles, when they came to the utmost verge 
of the icy stream, and entered upon the open ocean. 
Their fears were not yet removed ; for if a heavy 
gale had arisen, their slender barks must soon have 
been overwhelmed. There blew in fact a stiff breeze, 
which threw in a good deal of water, and caused 
severe cold ; however, at seven in the evening, they 
saw, with inexpressible pleasure, though dim and 
distant, the lofty and snow-capped mountains of Ice-- 
iand. But these were still fifty miles off, and much 
might intervene ; so that the night, which soon closed 
in, passed with a mixture of joy and fear. Fortunately 
the morning was favourable ; and about four they saw 
a black speck on the surface of the ocean. It proved 
to be an island, naked, rocky, and seemingly unin- 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 341 

habited ; yet to set foot on any shore, however wild 
and desolate, promised a temporary relief. On 
turning a promontory, what was their joy to see a 
boat pushing out to meet them ! and they were re- 
ceived by the natives of Grimsey (the name of the 
little island) with every mark of kindness and com- 
passion. The seamen were distributed among the 
half-subterraneous abodes, and received a portion 
of the frugal and scanty fare on which the inha- 
bitants subsisted. They were long without any 
means of communication by speech ; but at length 
the clergyman appeared, who was able to converse 
in Latin with Mr. Gumming. The latter, inquiring 
how his countrymen could best reach the mainland, 
was informed, that the islanders woiv'd assist in con- 
veying them to Akureyri, a small town, the residence 
of the nearest Danish governor, though situated at 
the distance of sixty-eight miles. Accordingly, at 
seven in the morning of the 2d May, they set sail, 
and, after a tedious voyage, reached at nine in the 
evening the coast of Iceland. They rowed along 
the shore, touching at various points, where they were 
hospitably received ; till on Thursday, 4th May, they 
saw a cluster of irregular wooden structures, which, 
to their surprise, proved to be Akureyri, the capital 
of this quarter of the island. They were here also 
received with the most humane hospitality, and re- 
mained three months before they could obtain a pas- 
sage home ; during which delay unfortunately they 
lost nine of their number, chiefly from mortification 
and other morbid affections occasioned by extreme 
cold. In the middle of July, they procured a passage 
in a Danish vessel, which brought them and their 
boats near to the coast of Shetland. Having landed 
at Lerwick, they were conveyed by his Majesty's 
ship Investigator to Peterhead, where they arrived 
on the 5th August. 

The whale-fishery deserves finally to be consi- 
dered in its commercial relations, under which as- 
Ff3 



342 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHEBY. 

pect it possesses considerable importance, whether 
we consider the capital invested, or the amount and 
value of the proceeds. 

The first and principal employment of capital in 
this trade consists in the construction and fitting out 
of the vessels adapted for its various purposes. This 
expense greatly exceeds that of other ships of the 
same dimensions, owing to the manner in which the 
timbers must be doubled and fortified, the necessity 
of having seven boats, a copious supply of line, nu- 
merous casks, and fishing implements. Mr. Scoresby 
states, that the Resolution of Whitby, of 291 tons, 
was built in 1803 with all these equipments, but 
without the outfit for a particular voyage, at 632 IZ. 
In 1813, the Esk of Whitby, of 354 tons, cost 
14,000/. ; but this included the outlay for her first ad- 
venture, which, being supposed to amount to 1700/., 
would make the expense of building and equipment 
only 12,300/. The sum of 14,000/. is stated to us 
from Hull, as the estimate for building and furnishing 
at that port a ship of 350 tons, in the year 1812. Since 
this last period a great reduction has taken place. 
Mr. Cooper, in 1824, reported to the House of Com- 
mons, that the sum required was only 10,000/. Ac- 
cording to the information received in July, 1830, 
from the different ports, we find that such a ship 
may now be built and completely equipped for about 
8000/. A Dundee correspondent calculates that half 
of this sum is expended in carpenter work, and the 
other half in sails, rigging, casks, lines, and other 
fishing apparatus. 

Besides this original cost, a large annual expen- 
diture is incurred in the prosecution of the fishery. 
There is first the outfit, being the provisions and 
other supplies put on board before the ship goes to 
sea. Mr. Scoresby states the expense of fitting out 
the Resolution of Whitby in 1803, to have amounted 
to 1470/. — namely, provisions, coals, &c. 769/. ; in- 
Burance, 413/. ; advance-money to seamen, 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 343 

The statements forwarded at the present date (July 
1830), from the several ports upon this subject, vary- 
in a remarkable degree. At Leith the estimate is 
from 700Z. to 1200/. ; Aberdeen, 1400/. ; Peterhead, 
from 1200/. to 1500/. ; while at Hull this outfit is 
reckoned at 2000/., expressly stated as exclusive of 
seamen's wages. Probably there may have been 
some difference as to the articles included in these 
estimates. An English crew, besides, may expect to 
be more amply provisioned, while the voyage from 
Hull is undoubtedly somewhat longer. To this first 
outlay must be added the expenses incurred in pro- 
secuting the fishery, and in preparing the cargo for 
sale. The pay of the master and harpoon ers is 
very judiciously made to depend almost entirely 
upon their success. They receive a certain sum for 
every whale struck, and afterward for every ton of 
oil extracted. The seamen, also, though they must 
have their monthly wages, obtain additional allow- 
ances in the event of a prosperous voyage. At Pe- 
terhead, it is estimated, that if a ship comes home 
clean, the entire loss will exceed 2000/. ; while from 
Hull we have received a calculation, that the total 
expense of a voyage, which produces 200 tons of 
oil, will be 3500/., exclusive of insurance. 

From these data we may form some estimate of 
the entire capital invested in the trade. Although 
the number of ships annually sent out scarcely ex- 
ceeds ninety, it is probable that there may be at least 
a hundred in a state fit for sailing. The annual ex- 
penditure on each may be averaged at 3000/. The 
value of wharves, warehouses, machinery for ex- 
tracting the oil, &c. was stated by Mr. Cooper to 
the House of Commons as amounting at Hull to 
60,000/. or 70,000/. ; and as that port enjoys about a 
third of the trade, these establishments may pro- 
bably amount altogether to 200,000/. We thus ob- 
tain 



844 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

100 ships at £8000, £800,000 

90 voyages at £3000, 270,000 

Warehouses, &c 200,000 

Capital invested, .... £1,270,000 

The produce of the fishery consists of oil and of 
whalebone ; none of the other articles, in an esti- 
mate of this kind, being worthy of much considera- 
tion. The prices of these two commodities vary 
greatly, both at different periods and from one year 
to another. 

Whale-oil, in 1742, is stated to have sold for 18/. 
per ton ; but in the following year it fell to 14/. In 
1801, it rose so high as 50/., but in 1802, was only 
31/., and in 1807, had sunk so low as 21/. In 1813, 
it reached a h^'^her price than ever, the finest quality 
being sold for 60/. ; but the prosperous fishery of 
1814 brought it down to 32/. There has been since, 
on the whole, a considerable reduction of price, 
chiefly, it may be presumed, from the extensive use 
of coal gas. Mr. Scoresby reckons the average of 
the nineteen years, ending with 1818, at 34/., 155. 
while an intelligent correspondent at Aberdeen states 
that of the last ten at 22/. 5^. The current price 
(July, 1830), is given in the Scotch ports at from 24/. 
to 26/. ; in Hull at 24/. 

Whalebone bore anciently a very high price, when 
the rigid stays and the expanded hoops of our grand- 
mothers produced an extensive demand for this com- 
modity. The Dutch have occasionally obtained 700/. 
per ton, and were accustomed to draw 100,000/. an- 
nually from England for that one article. Even in 
1763 it still brought 500/., but soon fell, and has 
never risen again to the same value. During the 
present century, the price has varied between 60/. and 
300/., seldom falling to the lowest rate, and rarely 
exceeding 150/. Mr. Scoresby reckons the price in 
the five years ending 1818, at 90/., while at present 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 345 

(July, 1830) it is stated from the diiferent ports to be 
from 160/. to ISOL This is for what is called the size- 
hone, or such pieces as measure six fee.t or upwards in 
length ; those below this standard are usually sold 
at half-price. It may appear singular that whale- 
bone should rise while oil has been so decidedly 
lowered ; but the one change, it is obvious, causes 
the other. Oil, being the main product of the fishery, 
regulates its extent, which being diminished by the 
low price, the quantity of whalebone is lessened, 
while the demand for it continuing as great as before, 
the value consequently rises. 

The whale-fishery, for one ship and one season, is 
a complete lottery, the result of which, according to 
the skill and good fortune of the persons employed, 
fluctuates between a large profit and a severe loss. 
Sometimes a vessel is so unlucky as to return clean; 
another brings only one fish; while eight or nine, 
producing about ninety tons of oil, are considered 
necessary to make an average voyage. There are 
fortunate instances of a much larger produce. The 
greatest cargo ever known by Scoresby to have been 
Drought from the northern seas was that of Captain 
Souter, of the Resolution of Peterhead, in 1814. It 
consisted of forty-four whales, yielding 299 tons of 
oil, which, even at the reduced rate of 32/., sold for 
9568/., raised by the whalebone and bounty to about 
11,000/. In 1813, both the elder and younger Mr. 
Scoresby brought cargoes, less in quantity, indeed, 
but which, from the oil selling at 60/. per ton, yield- 
ed a still greater return. The former, in the course 
of twenty-eight voyages, killed 498 whales, whence 
were extracted 4246 tons of oil, the value of which 
and of the whalebone exceeded 150,000/. ; all drawn 
by him out of the depths of the northern ocean. 

The Dutch have published tables, exhibiting the 
results of their fishery for the space of 107* years, be- 

* The years 1672, 1673, and 1674, are not included, the war with 
France having caused a suspension of the tishery. 



346 NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

tween 1669 and 1778, both inclusive. During that 
period they sent to Greenland 14,167 ships, of which 
561, or about four in the hundred, were lost. They 
took 57,590 whales, yielding 3,105,596 quardeelen* 
of oil, and 93,179,860 pounds of bone, which yielded 
a value of 18,631, 292/. f The expense of fitting out 
the ships amounted to 11,879,619/. Value of ships 
lost 470,422/. Expense of preparing the oil, bone, 
&c., 2,567,109/. Total expenses, 14,917,150/. ; leav- 
ing a profit of 3,714,142/. The Davis's Strait fishery, 
between 1719 and 1778, employed 3161 vessels, of 
which 62 were lost. The produce was 4,288,235/., 
which, deducting 3,410,987/. of expenses, left a profit 
of 877,248/. The Greenland fishery would thus have 
yielded a profit of about 25 per pent., and the Davis's 
Strait of about 26 per cent. ; but it may be observed, 
that the Dutch, in their estimate of expenses, have 
not included the original cost of the vessels. In the 
subsequent years, from 1785 down to 1794, the num- 
ber of ships was reduced to sixty, and the trade is 
said to have been carried on with absolute loss. 

The British fishery has lately yielded a produce 
and value much exceeding that of the Dutch during 
the period of its greatest prosperity. In the five 
years ending with 1818, there were imported into 
England and Scotland 68,940 tuns of oil, and 3420 
tons of whalebone ; which, valuing the oil at 36/., 
10s., and the bone at 90/., with 10,000/. in skins, 
raised the entire produce to 2,834,110/. sterling, or 
566,822/. per annum. The fishery of 1814, a year 
peculiarly fortunate, produced 1437 whales from 
Greenland, yielding 12,132 tuns of oil, which, even at 
the lower rate of 32/., including the whalebone and 
bounty, and added to the produce from Davis's Strait, 
formed altogether a value of above 700,000/. 

* A quardeel of oil contains fronn 18 to 21 stekans, or from 77 to 9C 
imperial standard gallons ; and 100 Dutch pounds are equal to 109 lb. 
avoirdupois nearly. 

t In converting the Dutch estimates into English money, the florin is 
valued at 20id. sterlinfi> 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY, 



347 



The following has been furnished to us from an 
authentic source as the result of the fishery of the yeai* 
1829, distinguishing the ports : — 



Ports. 


No. of 
Ships. 


Tonnage. 


Fish. 


Oil. 


Bone. | 


Tuns. 


Tons. 


Cwt. 


Aberdeen 

Berwick 

Dundee 

Hull 


11 
1 
9 

33 

4 
7 

4 
3 

12 
3 


3322 

309 

3031 

10,899 

1261 

2393 

714 

1301 

1103 

3429 

1050 


84 
11 
77 

339 
51 
71 
2 

39 
45 

118 
34 


1171 
147 

1005 

3982 
649 
862 
32 
481 
541 

1445 
357 


63 

8 

54 

235 

37 

48 

2 

27 

29 

78 

21 


14 
16 
9 
19 

4 
3 
Jl 
10 
16 
8 


Kirkcaldy 

Leith 

London 

Montrose 

Newcastle .... 
Peterhead .... 
Whitby 

Totals . . 


89 


28,812 


871 


10,672 


607 


110 



ESTIMATED VALUE. 



10,673 tuns* of oil at 25/ 266,800/. 

607i tons whalebone at 180/ 109,350/. 



376,150/. 



In the Commercial Tables presented to the House 
of Commons in 1830, the entire proceeds of last year 
are stated at 428,591/. 6s, 6d,; but this, of course, 
includes also the southern fishery. Of this amount 
there were exported to foreign countries, oil to the 
value of 73,749/. lOs. 6c/., and whalebone amounting 
to 40,666/. 155. 6d.; making in all, 114,416/. 6s, It 
may be mentioned, that this trade is now carried 
on entirely without legislative encouragement, the 
bounty having ceased to be granted since the year 
1824. 

* It may be observed that, in all tnese statements, the measure em- 
ployed is the tun of 252 old wine gallons, equal to 209 9-lOths imperial 
«^nndard gallons. 



348 -NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 

There has also been a somewhat singular change 
in the ports from which the fishery is chiefly carried 
on. In London were undertaken all the discoveries 
which led to its establishment ; and for some time a 
complete monopoly was enjoyed by the great com- 
panies formed in that city. Even between the years^ 
1780 and 1790, the metropolis sent out four times 
the number of vessels that sailed from any other 
port. It was observed, however, that her fishery 
was on the whole less fortunate than that of the new 
rivals which had sprung up; and her merchants 
w^ere so much discouraged, that, in Mr. Scoresby's 
time, ihey equipped only seventeen or eighteen ves- 
sels. They have since almost entirely abandoned 
the trade, employing last year and the present not 
more than two ships. Hull early became a rival to 
London, having sent out vessels at the very com- 
mencement of the fishery. Although checked at 
first by the monopoly of the great companies, as 
soon as the trade became free, she prosecuted it with 
distinguished success. In the end of the last century 
that town attained, and has ever since preserved, 
the character of the first whale-fishing port in Bri- 
tain. Whitby engaged in this pursuit in 1753, and 
carried it on for some time with more than common 
success ; but her operations have since been much 
limited. Liverpool, after embarking in the under- 
taking with spirit, has now entirely relinquished it. 
Meantime the eastern ports of Scotland have steadily 
carried on, and even extended their transactions, 
while those of the country at large were diminish- 
ing. The increase has been most remarkable at 
Peterhead; and indeed this town, as compared espe- 
cially with London, must derive a great advantage 
from avoiding, both in the outward and homeward 
voyage, 600 miles of somewhat difficult navigation. 

The following summary has been collected from 
Mr. Scoresby, as the average quantity of shipping^ 
fitted out in the different ports for nine years ending 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 349 

with 1818; and the comparison of it with the num- 
ber sent out in 1830, will show the present state of 
the trade : — 

Average of 

1810-18. 1830 

England, — Berwick, 1^ 1 

Grimsby, 1^ 

Hull, , 53f 33 

Liverpool, 1| 

London, 17f 2 

Lynn, 1| 

Newcastle, 4j 3 

Whitby, 8| 2 

91| 41 



Scotland, — Aberdeen, lOf 10 

Banff, I 

Burntisland, 1 

Dundee, 7| 9 

Greenock, f 1 

Kirkcaldy, • • • ^ 5 

Kirkwall, f 

Leith, 8J 7 

Montrose, Sj 4 

Peterhead, 6| 13 

40J 50 

Total, 131§ 91 

The following list of the ships, sent out in 1830, 
with the tonnage and masters, may interest some 
classes of readers : — 



35i 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY 



HULL 33. 



Tonnage. 

Ahramy Jackson 319 

Alfred, Brass 322 

Andrew Marvel, Orton, . 377 

Ariel, Rogers 340 

Brunswick, Blyth 357 

Comet, Woodall 311 

Cumbrian, Munroe. . . . 374 

Dorton, Linskill 285 

Buncombe, Scqffin* . , . 275 

Eagle, Wright 289 

Ellison, Jackson 360 

Everthorpe, Johnston, , 351 

Gilder, M'Kenzie 360 

Harmony, Bramham, . . 364 

Harmony, Parker 300 

Ingria, Wilson 316 

Isabella, Humphrey. , . 374 



Tonnage. 

Jane, Maddison 359 

Kiero, Martin 362 

Kirkella, Carlill 410 

Laurel, Manger. ..... 321 

Lee, Lee 363 

Lord Wellington, Harri- 
son 354 

Mary Frances, Coldray, 385 
North Briton, Story. . 262 
Oxenhope, M'Intosh. . . 286 
Progress, Bannatt. . , . 307 

Swan, Bring 320 

Venerable, Bennett. . . . 328 
Volunteer, Markham. . . 305 

William, North 350 

William Torr, Bannatt. 281 
Zephyr, Ash . 342 



L0ND0N-~2. 

Margaret, Float 351 | Neptune, Wallace* ... 291 

WHITBY — 2. 

Phoenix, 3Iills 324 [ William and Ann, Terry. 362 

NEWCASTLE 3. 

Cove, Painter 373 I Lady Jane, Fleming, . . 390 

GrenvilleBay, Warham. 340 j 

BERWICK — 1. 

Norfolk, Harrison 310 

KIRKCALDY 5. 



Caledonia, Todd 373 

Earl Percy, Stewart. . . 319 
Egginton, Stodart 336 



Rambler, Watson 282 

Triad, Young HSl 



BURNTISLAND 1. 

Majestic, Bavidson* 



NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. 



351 



LEITH — 1, 



Tonnage. 

Baffin, Smith 321 

Juno, Lyall 345 

North Pole, Smith 312 

Prince of Orange, Guthrie3d9 



Tonnage. 

Rattler, Stodart 348 

Ulverstone, Liston. . . . 354 
William and Ann, Smith 388 



ABERDEEN 10. 



Alexander, Allan, .... 252 
Bon Accord, Parker, , , 364 

Dee, Cook 319 

Hercules, Reid 252 

Laetitia, Clark 318 



Middleton, James 298 

Middleton, Mills 329 

Neptune, Bruce, 282 

Princess of Wales, Gray 308 
Saint Andrew, Reed, . .313 



PETERHEAD 13. 



Commerce, Cordmer, , 241 

*Eclipse, Penny 287 

Gleaner, Shand 262 

Hannibal, Birnie, .... 315 

Hope, Volum 251 

James, Hogg 346 

*Mary, Stewart 157 



^Perseverance, Ogston, 240 

Resolution, Philip 400 

Resolution, Hogg 291 

Superior, Manson 306 

Traveller, Simpson, . . . 400 
*Union, Mackie 224 



DUNDEE — 9. 



Achilles, Thoms 367 

Advice, Deuchars 324 

Dorothy, Davidson, ... 369 

Fairy, Welch 247 

Friendship, Chapman. . 304 



Horn, Stevenson 370 

Princess Charlotte, Adam- 
son 357 

Thomas, Thoms 356 

ThreeBrothers, Cameron 339 



MONTROSE — 5, 

Eliza Swan, Fulton, , . 306 

London, Burn 345 

Monarch, Davidson, . . . 311 



Spencer, Robertson, , . . 340 
John of Greenock, Comh 316 



In all, ninety-one ships, — four of which, marked thus *, 
were for Greenland, all the others for Davis's Strait, 



352 ARCTIC UEOLOGV. 



CHAPTER X. 

Arctic Geology. 

The Geology of Spitzbergen, of East or Old Green- 
land, and the countries examined and discovered by- 
Ross, Parry, Scoresby, and Clavering, although as 
yet but imperfectly known, is far from being unin- 
teresting. It exhibits the same series of rocks, and 
the same general arrangements, as occur in other 
countries, the geognostical structure of which has 
been thoroughly explored : The fossil organic remains 
which, in all parts of the world, afford so much in- 
formation in regard to the former condition of the 
climate, seas, animals, and vegetables of the globe, 
are not wanting in these remote and desolate regions ; 
and, lastly, the Arctic Geology has afforded to the 
mineralogist specimens of many of the rarer, and of 
some of the more precious minerals and ores : — 

1. North Cape, Cherie Island, Hope Island, The 
Thousand Islands, Spitzbergen, and Rosses Islet, 

North Cape. — The great primitive land of Scan- 
dinavia continues onward to the extreme point of 
Norway : but in this high latitude some new forma- 
tions make their appearance among the older. The 
sandstone-quartz of Alten has been known since the 
travels of the celebrated Baron Von Buch. On the 
east, towards the Russian dominions, there is a con- 
siderable tract which deviates more from the primi- 
tive formation than the sandstone-quartz of Alten 
does. Sandstone and conglomerate extend across the 
subjacent gneiss in a horizontal position. These 
evidently secondary rocks probably belong to the old 
red sandstone formation of some authors. Hence, 



HOPE ISLAND. 353k 

in Finmark we find ourselves on the edge of a great 
secondary basin. 

Cherie Island. — The first land which rises above 
the level of the ocean in the Arctic sea, beyond the 
North Cape, is the small Cherie Island (Bear Island), 
about 10 miles long, in north latitude 74° 30', Jong. 
20° E., which is entirely composed of secondary rocks 
horizontally stratified, and cut perpendicularly on the 
coast into cliffs. The principal rocks are sandstone 
and limestone, in which veins of leadglance or sul- 
phuret of lead, sometimes containing native silver, 
occur. The limestone abounds in shells in a fossil 
state ; but shells very different from those that at 
present inhabit these northern seas : the sandstone 
contains a bed of coal, from two to four feet thick, — 
a fact subversive of that opinion which maintains that 
coal is wanting in Arctic countries. In Scoresby's 
drawing of Cherie Island three conical hills are re- 
presented ; these, in all probability, are of igneous 
origin, probably secondary trap. 

Hope Island and The Thousand Islands. — Farther 
towards the north the depth of the sea is so incon- 
siderable and unvarying, that seamen, after seeing 
the horizontal strata of Cherie Island, conclude that, 
in their course northward, they sail first over the 
horizontal basis of Cherie Island, and next over strata 
which are visible in Hope Island and the Archipelago 
of The Thousand Islands. The strata visible in 
Hope Island and the Archipelago of The Thousand 
Islands are said to be of blackish clay-slate. Hope 
Island, situate on the south coast of Edge's Island, 
lies in N. lat. 76° 20', and longitude 20° E. It is 
nine leagues long, but scarcely a mile broad, and 
lies N.E. by E., and S.W. by W. It consists of five 
mountains ; the northernmost one is the highest ; and 
those succeeding diminish gradually in size. The 
Thousand Islands is a large group of small isles in- 
terposed between Hope Island and the south coast 
of Edge's Island. 



354 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

Spitzhergen. — This large island, although not the 
most northern known land, is nearly so. It lies 
between latitudes 76° 30' and 80^ T N., and between 
the longitudes 9° and 22^ E. On taking a general 
view of this island, the principal object that strikes 
the eye are numberless mountain-peaks, ridges, and 
precipices, rising immediately from the sea often to 
a height from 3000 to 4500 feet above the sea-level. 
The various brown, green, and purple tints of the 
land, as seen from a distance, are strikingly con- 
trasted with the snow-capped summits, ridges, and 
acclivities, and the valleys filled with snow or with 
glacier-ice ; which latter often extend downwards to 
the coast, forming splendid and lofty icy-clifFs, from 
100 to 400 feet high. On the east coast are two 
large islands, viz. Edge^s Island and North-east 
Land* 

On approaching towards the west side of Stans- 
foreland, on the east coast of Edge's Land or Island, 
between 77° and 78° north latitude, the lowest rock 
is a coarse granular trap, split by means of vertical 
rents into imperfect columns. This bed forms a flat 
extent of coast of about ten miles and a quarter broad, 
and forty-one miles long ; and is the base or funda- 
mental rock of an alternation oijine granular sand- 
stone, an arenaceous marl-slate, compact siliceous 
limestone, and frequent repetitions of the trap-rock. 
Organic remains were not met with either in the 
sandstone or limestone by Professor Keilhau ; but in 
some specimens collected at Cape Faneshaw, in that 
part of Spitzbergen named New Friesland, by the 
officers of Captain Parry's expedition, we noticed 
silicified madrepores, retepores, orthoceratites, tere- 
bratulites, and cardites. This same formation extends 
to north latitude 80°, and is conjectured by Kielhau 
to form the greater part of East Spitzbergen. It is 
true that some boulders of granite weie met with, 
but these may have come from the great primitive 
chain of West Spitzbergen. Professor Keilhau found 



SPITZBERGEN. 355 

an interesting deposite of shelUclay in Stansforeland, 
in which the same kinds of fossil-shells were found 
as in a similar clay on the southern coasts of Norway. 
This deposite extends onwards nine and a half miles 
from the shore, and rises 100 feet above the present 
level of the sea. Bones of whales have been seen 
in The Thousand Isles, at a considerable height 
above the level of the sea, and probably imbedded in 
this shell-day. Are we to infer, from the situation 
of this modern clay, that Spitzbergen has risen from 
the bottom of the sea at a comparatively recent 
period? Limestone, like that at Cape Faneshaw, 
occurs in the island named the North-east Land,, on 
the east coast of Spitzbergen. The officers of Cap- 
tain Parry's expedition also found granite there. 
The west and north coast of Spitzbergen are com- 
posed principally of older rocks, viz. primitive and 
sometimes transition rocks. The primitive rocks of 
West Spitzbergen appear at the South Cape in lati- 
tude 761°. They are vertical strata of mica-slate, with 
numerous beds of quartz, ranging from north-east to 
south-west. In Horn Sound and Bell Sound these 
rocks form the high land ; and to judge from the 
form of the mountains, these or other primitive rocks 
ascend higher on the west coast. The primitive 
rocks near South Cape appear in part overlaid with 
the shell-clay, A new formation of red sandstone 
and gypsum occurs westward along the seacoast in 
fiords under the high chains, and also in small low 
islands which lie in front of the coast. In the year 
1826, sea-horse fishers from Finmark brought sixty 
tons of coal from Ice Sound, in north latitude 78°, to 
Hammerfest in Norway ; and we are informed by 
Scoresby, that the coal is so easily procured, that 
many of the Dutch fishers a few years ago, were in 
the habit of laying in a stock of this useful mineral, 
for fuel on the passage homeward. The coal of 
Spitzbergen which extends beyond north latitude 
79°, resembles in some places cannelcoal; in others 



356 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

it is brown coal or lig-nite. Scoresby, a little to the 
north of north latitude 79°, at Mitre Cape, observed 
the hills to be composed of gneiss, mica-slate, and 
limestone, — and in King-'s Bay, a little to the south 
of this cliff, on the coast, natural arches of marble. 
On the north coast of Spitzbergen, in some points, 
as at Red Beach, secondary rocks of red sandstone, 
probably new red sandstone, occur ; but the prevail- 
ing rocks are of an older date, being principally pri 
mitive, with less frequently rocks of the transition 
class. The primitive rocks mentioned in Parry's 
narrative are granite, gneiss, mica-slate, hornblende- 
slate, primitive limestone or marble, quartz-rock, 
dolomite marble, chlorite-slate, and clay-slate. In 
the mica-slate precious garnets were frequently met 
with. The transition rocks were principally clay- 
slate, quartz-rock, and limestone. In some points 
alluvial deposites were met with, and brown coal or 
lignite, either of new, secondary, or of tertiary for- 
mation, was noticed. 

Moffen Island, a small low island, lying on the 
north side of Spitzbergen, in north latitude 80° 1', 
longitude 12° 43' east, was visited by Mulgrave, who 
says it had not been noticed by the older navigators. 
It may be of new formation, and, as Scoresby re- 
marks, has probably been thrown up by the currents 
from each side of Spitzbergen, meeting. It is of a 
roundish form, about two miles in diameter, and has 
a shallow lake in the middle. The lake, when Scores- 
by saw it, was frozen over, except thirty or forty 
yards round the edge, and this near the end of July. 
The whole island is covered with gravel, and with- 
out the least vegetation. It is hut a few feet above the 
level of the sea* The only piece of drift-wood found 
on it by Mulgrave, which was about three fathoms 
long, and as thick as the mizen-mast of a ship, had 
been thrown over the sea-beach and lay near the lake. 
Captain Parry landed on several islands on the north- 
ern coast, viz. Low Island about seven miles long, 



JAN MAYENS ISLAND. 357 

which appeared composed of transition quartz-rock, 
Walden tsle, on which were found primitive granites, 
quartz-rock, and gneiss ; and Rosses Islet, a remark- 
able spot, the most northern known land of the globe, 
being situated in north latitude 80° 48|', he found to 
be composed of gray and reddish granite-gneiss, which 
is very coarse, granular, occasionally porphyritic, with 
imbedded precious garnets; also ajftesh-red variety 
of the same rock. 

Remarks. — From the preceding details, it appears 
that Spitzbergen and its neighbouring isles afford 
rocks belonging to five of the great classes admitted 
by geologists, — namely, primitive, transition, secon- 
dary, tertiary (?), and alluvial. No true volcanic 
rocks are mentioned by authors. Ores are of rare 
occurrence, small portions of iron-pyrites and of clay 
iron-stone being the only metalliferous minerals 
enumerated. The dolomite-marble of Hecla Cove, 
mentioned by Parry, agrees in colour, size of grain, 
and other characters, with the statuary marble of 
Italy. In these islands the precious garnet is met 
with. Its occurrence on Ross's Islet, and its known 
distribution in other countries, shows that the pre- 
cious garnet, of all the gems, has the widest geo- 
graphical range, extending, in the northern hemis- 
phere, from the equator to the high latitude 80° 48^ 
north, 

Jan Mayen^s Island. — This island, according to 
Scoresby, is situated between the latitudes of 70° 
49' north, and 71° 8' 20" north, and between the 
longitudes of 7° 2& and 8° 44' west. It is about 
ten leagues long from north-east to south-west, and 
is in no place above three leagues in breadth. The 
peak of Beerenberg, the highest summit in the island, 
Scoresby found to be 6870 feet above the sea, conse- 
quently higher than any of the summits in Spitzber- 
gen and Greenland. It was seen by Scoresby at 
the distance of 100 miles. The following account 
of the geognosy of the only part of the island hitherto 



358 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

examined is given by Scoresby, and we know it is 
correct, having in our possession the specimens col- 
lected during the excursion : — 

" I left my ship," says Captain Scoresby, " at three 
quarters past one in the morning, accompanied by 
Captains Jackson and Bennet, whose ships were 
near at the time, and landed at half-past two, amid 
a considerable surf, on a beach covered with a coarse 
black sand. This sand, which formed a very thick 
bed, covered over an extent of two or three miles, and 
about a furlong in breadth. It was a mixture of iron 
sand, augite, and olivine or chrysolite. The black parts, 
which were very heavy, and readily attracted by the 
magnet, had an appearance exactly like gunpowder. 
After a few feet rise, forming a sea-bank of black 
sand, the strand proceeded inland on a horizontal 
line for about a fourth of a mile, where it was ter- 
minated by irregular cliffs. The strand appeared 
to have been occasionally covered with the sea, as 
it was strewed with drift-wood, part of which was 
tolerably good timber, and the rest bruised and a 
little worm-eaten. I had not advanced many paces 
before I observed signs of a volcano. Fragments 
of compact and vesicular lava were met with at every 
step ; blocks of burned clay were next met with ; 
and, nearer the cliff, large masses of red clay, partly 
baked, but still in a friable state, occurred in great 
abundance. Numerous pointed rocks, probably of 
the trap formation, were projecting through the sand. 
One of these, wl\ich was vesicular basalt, had nutner- 
ous grains and crystals of augite imbedded in it. 
Along with these was a rock nearly allied in appear- 
ance to the celebrated millstone or vesicular basalt 
of Andernach. After leaving the sea-shore, I per- 
ceived no other mineral but such as bore undoubted 
marks of recent volcanic action, viz. cinders, earthy 
slag, burnt clay, scoriae, vesicular lava. The place 
from whence these substances appear to have been 
discharged being near, we attempted to reach it. In 



JAN MAYEN'S ISLAND. 859 

performing the ascent, the steepness of the hill and 
the looseness of the materials made the undertaking 
not a little arduous. We frequently slid backwards 
several paces, by the pieces of lava giving way be- 
neath our feet ; in which case the ground generally 
resounded as if we had been travelling on empty me-^ 
tallic vessels or vaulted caverns. The baked clay, 
and other loose rocks, consisted chiefly of large 
masses at the bottom of the hill ; but about the 
middle of the ascent these substances were in 
smaller fragments. Towards the top, blocks of 
half-baked red clay, containing many crystals of 
augite, were again met with ; and about the south* 
ern part of the summit, a rugged wall of the same 
sort occurred, giving the mountain a castellated 
form of no small magnificence. On reaching this 
summit, estimated at 1500 feet above the sea, we 
beheld a beautiful crater, forming a basin of 500 or 
600 feet in depth, and 600 or 700 yards in diameter. 
It was of a circular form, and both the interior and 
the sides had a similar inclination. The bottom of 
the crater was filled with alluvial matter to such a 
Height, that it presented a horizontal flat of an ellip- 
tical form, measuring 400 feet by 240. A subterra- 
nean cavern penetrated the side of the crater at the 
bottom, from whence a spring of water issued, which, 
after running a short distance towards the south, 
disappeared in the sand. From this eminence we 
had a most interesting prospect. Towards the north 
appeared Beerenberg, now first seen free from clouds, 
rising in great majesty into the region of perpetual 
frost. At the foot of the mount, on the south-east 
side, near a stupendous accumulation of lava, bearing 
ihe castellated form, was another crater of similar 
form to the one described above. Towards the 
south-west the utmost extent of the island was 
visible ; while towards the north a thick fog ob- 
scured the prospect, w^hich, as it advanced in stately 
grandeur towards us, gradually shrouded the dis- 



360 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

tant scenery, until the nearer mountains were 
wrapped in impenetrable gloom. The sea at the 
same time was calm, the sun bright, and the at- 
mosphere of half the hemisphere without a cloud. 
Excepting the interest excited by the volcano, Beer- 
enberg sunk every other object into comparative 
insignificance. A rocky hill, with a precipitous side 
towards the sea, lying a little to the westward, I 
descended towards it from the ridge of the crater, 
with the expectation of finding some other kind of 
rock than what had yet been met with. It was 
found to consist only of a cliff of yellowish gray 
friable earth or clay, in which crystals of augite, 
along with black roundish granular pieces of basalt. 
Jay imbedded. A piece of iron, which appeared to 
have been derived from ironstone by a smelting pro- 
cess conducted in the furnace of nature, was found 
near the volcanic mount. Being very cumbrous, it 
was laid aside by our party as we ascended, and un- 
fortunately left behind by us when we quitted the 
shore. The clifis here afforded but few specimens 
of plants. Indeed, we travelled a considerable dis- 
tance before we could perceive the least sign of vege- 
tation ; as we advanced, however, we met with tufts 
of plants in full flower, scattered widely among the 
volcanic rocks ; but, under the last cliff we visited, 
the variety was greater and the specimens more 
vigorous. Among the plants we recognised rumex 
digynus, saxifraga tricuspidata, and oppositifolia, 
arenaria peploides, silene acaulis, draba verna, &c. 
We returned to the ships at six in the evening. A 
fishing party which I sent out, proving unsuccessful 
in the offing, approached the shore about two miles 
to the eastward of the place we visited, where, though 
the surf was very considerable, and the strand very 
contracted, they effected a landing. They observed 
much drift-wood, a boat's oar, a ship's mast, and 
some other wrought wood, scattered along the shore.^ 
Every rock they noticed, and all the specimens they 



OLD GREENLAND. 361 

brought away, bore the same volcanic character as 
those I observed. Near some large fissures, which 
here and there occurred in the rocky and precipitous 
cliff, immense heaps of lava were seen, which ap- 
peared to have been poured out of these chinks in 
the rock. Cinders, earthy slag, iron-sand, and frag- 
ments of trap-rocks, covered the beach and so much 
of the cliff as they had an opportunity of examining. 
The volcano discovered in this excursion I ventured 
to name Esk Mount, after the ship I commanded, 
and the bay where we landed Jameson Bay, in re- 
membrance of my friend Professor Jameson." 

Captain Scoresby farther remarks, that Esk Mount 
appears to have been in action in the spring of the 
following year ; for, on the 29th of April, 1818, being 
off Jameson Bay, he observed near to Esk Mount 
considerable jets of smoke discharged at intervals 
from the earth. The smoke was projected with 
great velocity, and seemed to rise to twice the height 
of the land, or about 4000 feet. Captain Gilyott, a 
Greenland fisher, also observed the same appear- 
ance, with this addition, that once he noticed a shin-- 
ing redness resembling the embers of an immense 
fire. This fact serves to account for some strange 
noises heard by the seven Dutch seamen who at- 
tempted to winter here in the year 1633-4. In the 
beginning of the night of the 8th of September, in 
particular, they " were frightened by a noise as if 
something had fallen very heavy on the ground ; but 
saw nothing." This, instead of being the fall of an 
iceberg, as some have supposed. Was probably a 
volcanic phenomenon. 

3. Old Greenland. — This extensive land, which, 
according to some, is a continuation of the continent 
of America, while others view it as a group of large 
islands, extends from north latitude 59° 14', to 72° 
36' north latitude. The few details i:egarding its 
geology we owe to Giesecke, who spent many years 
on the west coast, — Scoresby, who explored the 
Hh 



^2 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

east coast, — and Captain Ross, who sailed to the top 
of Baffin's Bay. I 

East Coast of Greenland, — This iron-bound coast 
is barren, rugged, and mountainous ; and even in the 
warmer seasons of the year but few animals or 
vegetables assist in varying the monotonous and 
dreary scene. The average elevation of the coast 
is about 3000 feet. Several mountains measured by 
Scoresby on the Liverpool coast were found to be 
4000 feet; and Werner Mountains in Davy Sound 
were estimated, by the distance at which they were 
seen, and the elevation they assumed above the ordi- 
nary mountains, to be 6000 feet. In the interesting 
account of the exploratory voyage of a late distin- 
guished officer. Captain Clavering, published in the 
ninth volume of the New Edinburgh Philosophical 
Journal, it is stated, that on the coast to the north- 
ward of the part surveyed by Scoresby, — that, 
namely, examined by Captain Clavering, — the moun- 
tains are from 3000 to 4000 feet high. Scoresby's 
survey extended particularly from Cape Barclay and 
Knighton Bay, in about north latitude 69°, to Cape 
Parry in about north latitude 72° 30' ; that of Cap 
tain Clavering from Cape Parry to an island under 
north latitude 76° : the coast downwards to Staaten 
Hook and Cape Farewell to about north latitude 59° 
30', is in part described by Crantz, but much of it is 
entirely unknown. 

The tract examined by Scoresby appears to be 
principally of primitive rock. Secondary rocks also 
occur, but the transition are the least frequent. On 
the beaches, and at the head of friths, alluvial depo- 
sites were noticed. 

The primitive rocks noticed were, granite, gneiss, 
mica-slate, hornblende-slate, syenite, and clay-slate. 
These rocks exhibit in that remote region the same 
varieties of structure as those on the west coast of 
Greenland, and these again do not differ from the 
primitive rocks of Britain and other countries ; thus 



EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. 36S 

affording another proof of the uniformity of charac- 
ter, similarity of position, and universality of distri- 
bution of primitive rocks in all parts of the world. 
Judging from what is known of the imbedded mine- 
rals on the west coast of East Greenland, and reflect, 
ing on the agreement of the rocks, both on the east 
and west sides of the country, we may infer, that if 
Scoresby had had leisure for more minute investi- 
gation, his scientific zeal would have been rewarded 
by the discovery of the hitherto rare cryolite, the 
sodalite, and allanite, with magnificent tourmalines 
and garnets, interesting varieties of zircon, splendid 
specimens of hyper stent, the remarkable dichroiie^ 
and with all the species of thejelspar genus. There 
does not appear any reason why the ores of iron, 
lead, tin, and copper of the west coast should not 
also occur in the same rocks upon the east ; and the 
fine displays of apatate, calcareous spar, fluor spar^ 
and of other simple minerals on the west coast, which 
have been a source of so much instruction and de- 
. ightful contemplation to the scientific observer, may 
iii some future voyage present themselves in the 
newly-discovered countries to the eye and the intelli- 
gence of the naturalist. The specimens of transition 
clay-slate picked up by Scoresby, prove the existence 
of rocks of that class in Greenland, and thus add a 
new feature to its geognosy ; for Giesecke does not 
enumerate any of the slates he met with as belonging 
to the transition class. This fact is also a farther 
proof of the wide distribution of these rocks ; and 
shows, in opposition to certain speculative views, that 
they are not confined to a few narrow corners of the 
globe, but, like granite, gneiss, &c., may be consi- 
dered as occurring in most extensive tracts of coun- 
try, and that, therefore, the series is to be associated 
with the universal formations. We do not know 
any other examples of transition rocks having been 
found in so high a latitude. The secondary rocks 
met with are referable to two formations, one aque 



364 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

ous or Neptunian, the other Plutonic or igneous 
the Neptunian rocks belong to the j^r^^ secondary 
sandstone, or coal^formation, — the other to the second-' 
ary trap and porphyry series. This coal-formation 
dofes not occur on the west coast, and was met with 
for the first time in Greenland by Scoresby. It is the 
same formation as that which abounds all around 
Edinburgh ; in short, it is that important deposite in 
which are situated all the great coal-mines in Scot- 
land and England. It was met with only in Jame^ 
son's Land, where it forms the principal deposite, and 
gives to that country its peculiar characters ; thus 
affording another example of the connexion of the 
general and particular forms of the surface of a coun- 
try with its geognostical structure and composition. 
This formation always contains impressions and 
casts of plants which have a tropical aspect, — a cir- 
cumstance of high interest, when combined with the 
Arctic situation of the coal. The coal-formation in 
Melville Island, in north latitude 75^, where the sum- 
mer lasts but a few weeks, I found, on examining a 
series of specimens, to contain various tropicalr 
looking fossil plants resembling those met with in the 
coal-fields of Britain; and as the same formation 
occurs in Jameson's Land, in north latitude 71°, it 
is very probable that future naturalists will detect, 
in its strata, plants of a similar nature. Remains of 
plants with tropical characters, evidently in their 
native place of growth, under the 75° north latitude, 
is a fact which naturally lead^ to very interesting 
discussions in regard to the ancient forms of the 
land, the former state of the climate, and conse- 
quently to the early condition of the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms of Arctic lands. The coal-for- 
mation of Jameson's Land, at NcilVs Cliffs, exhibits 
a splendid display of secondary trap-cliffs, as is SQ 
often the case in the middle division of Scotland. 

The secondary, trap-rocks, — all of which are more 
or less of an igneous origin^ and the consideration of 



WEST COAST OF GREENLAND. ^6S 

which is so importantly connected with the position 
of the neighbouring strata, the form of the surface, 
and the elevation of that surface above the waters 
of the ocean, — occur at Traill Island, forming, ap- 
parently, nearly its whole mass. These rocks are 
principally greenstone, and claystone, and felspar 
porphyries. 

Neither Captain Clavering, nor Captain Sabine, 
who accompanied him, appear to have bestowed 
any attention on the geology of the country sur- 
veyed from Cape Parry to north latitude 76°, the 
most northern land of Greenland seen by Clavering, 
as all we obtain from their reports is simply, that 
the land was mountainous, from 3000 to 4000 feet 
high, and principally composed of trap-rocks. 

West Coast of Greenland, — The west coast of this 
forlorn region is equally mountainous, rugged, and 
desolate as the east. Th€ country, even when but 
inconsiderably elevated above the sea, is covered 
with snow, or encased in ice. In the warm season 
of the year, rivers appear, but few in number and of 
inconsiderable size, which are supplied by the melting 
of the snow and ice. The same also is the case 
with the lakes, which in some parts are of considera- 
ble size. Springs then also burst forth, but in winter 
the greater number cease. Giesecke mentions a 
tidal spring, which rises and falls with the tide ; and 
a hot spring, which neither cold nor storm interrupts, 
flows all the year round with a temperature of 104^ 
of Fahrenheit. This hot spring occurs in the south- 
east of the coast, in the island of Ounartok, in north 
latitude 60°, and is highly interesting, as showing 
that that igneous agency, which was formerly exerted 
so extensively in this country, is still at work beneath 
the surface.* 

The large islands that skirt this coast, of which 

* The experiments of Cordier, detailed in the New Edinburgh 
Philosophical Journal, with the numerous details in regard to the tem- 
perature of springs and mines, go to support the idea, not of a central 
heot, but of a source of heat independent of that derived from the auii, 
situated in the crust of the earth. 

Hh2 



866 ARCTIC aEOLOGY. 

the most considerable is Disco, are, like the conti^ 
nent, composed of barren rocks, and of valleys filled 
with eternal ice; while the smaller islands are 
formed of roundish elevations and hills, the bases of 
which are inhabited by numberless sea-fowl. i 

The little we know of the geology has been ob# 
tained by examining the seacoast, or tracts removed 
but a short distance from it, — the interior and higher 
parts of the country being inaccessible, owing to the 
deep and constant cover of ice and snow.' 

Four classes of rocks occur, viz. primitive, se- 
condary, tertiary, and alluvial. The primitive JVep^ 
tunian rocks are, some granites, gneiss, mica-slate> 
white-stone, clay-slate, green-stone, and limestone ; 
the primitive igneous rocks, are granite and porphyry. 
These rocks exhibit the usual relations, the gneiss 
appearing as the under or fundamental rock, sup- 
porting the white-stone, mica-slate, and clay-slate, 
with their limestones and greenstones ; while certain 
granites, syenite, and porphyry, rise through the older 
or Neptunian rocks. In these rocks various beauti- 
ful and curious simple minerals occur, namely, 
cryolite, allanite, sodalite, thulite; also numerous 
precious garnets, rock-crystal, rose-quartz, dichroite, 
hyperstene, apatite or phosphate of lime, zircon,Jluor'' 
spar, calc-spar, gold-like mica, magnetic iron ore, 
gadolonite, tin-stone, wolfram, arsenical and iron- 
pyrites, galena or leadglance, titanium, &c. &c. 
Indurated talc and pot-stone are also met with. Of 
these lamps and kettles are made. Utensils made 
of these minerals are carried to some districts where 
they are not found, and are bartered for provisions, 
furs, &c. The Greenlanders, says Crantz, sometimes 
give them as presents to persons of distinction in 
Denmark, where ^hey are highly valued, as it is 
thought that articles of food prepared in them are 
more delicate than when done in metallic vessels. It 
may here also be noticed, that the gold-like variety of 
mica was at one time taken for gold ; and it is stated 



367 

by Egede, that its appearance was so seducing, that 
two successive expeditions were sent from Denmark 
in the early part of the 17th century, in 1636, for car- 
goes of it, in the expectation of finding gold. Not 
discouraged by the first failure, a second ship was 
laden with it, which, after the most careful analysis, 
was found worthless. 

The secondary and tertiary rocks, at present known 
to occur in this coast, are secondary or tertiary traps. 
or both, with slate-clay, limestone containing fishes. 
and limestone containing imbedded amber. These 
limestones and slate contain, or are associated with, 
beds of brown coal or lignite ; in some kinds of brown 
coal amber also occurs. These newer trap-rocks, 
the amygdaloidal, varieties of which contain agate, 
jasper, calcedony, and green earth, have been traced 
from north latitude 69o 14' to the top of Baffin's Bay, 
the furthest northern point reached by Captain Ross.* 
A splendid display of these rocks is presented in the 
large island named Disco, which is entirely formed of 
them. The alluvial depositions, which are of sand, 
gravel, clay, and rolled masses, occur on the seashore, 
or on the sides of the fiords ; but they are not men- 
tioned as appearing any where in great quantity. 
Peat, which is to be considered an alluvial formation, 
is met with in fenny places, interspersed with roots, 
branches, decayed wood, and withered grass. Much 
of the peat contains sea-shells, from which it is sus- 
pected that the sea washed over it at some distant 
period. No wood grows, but drift-wood is frequently 
obtained on the sea-coasts, particularly in the south- 
ern and western parts. 

4. Barrow^s Strait, Melville Island, Port Bowen, — 
All that is known of the geology of these Arctic 
lands we owe to the Parry expeditions in 1819 and 
20, and in 1821-2-3. 

The east side of Baffin's Bay, or west coast of 

* Considerable masses of meteoric iron were found by Capt. Ross, at 
Sowallick Point, in north latitude 760 2' 



368 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

Greenland, as already mentioned, is composed prin- 
cipally of primitive and secondary rocks; on the 
west side of Baffin's Bay to the entrance of Lan- 
caster's Sound, the predominating rocks were found 
to be primitive, viz. gneiss, mica-slate, and granite. 
In the latitude of the entrance of Lancaster's Sound, 
in Possession Bay, the rocks are granite, syenite, 
hornblende-rock, with disseminated precious garnets, 
and rocks of new red sandstone, with fibrous and 
granular gypsum. The north coast of Barrow's 
Strait, as far westward as the Polar Sea, is said to 
consist of limestone resembling mountain limestone. 
Both sides of Prince Regent's Inlet are formed of a 
compact limestone, which contains fibrous brown 
iron ore and a kind of brown coal. Its colours are 
ash-gray, yellowish-gray, and yellowish-brown. It 
affords about 20 per cent, of carbonate of magne- 
sia, and is, therefore, a magnesian limestone. It 
contains imbedded masses of chert-quartz. The 
organic remains found in it were entrockites, catinu- 
laria, speropore, turbinolioe, Juvosites, several species 
of terebratulce, a trochus, a turritella, and an orthoce- 
ratite. This has been called Port Bowen limestone ; 
its age has not been determined. Resting upon it 
there are thick beds of gypsum, containing selenitic, 
fibrous, and foliated varieties, which are connected 
with a slaty limestone, which is newer than the Port 
Bowen limestone. Byam Martin's Island ippears to 
be composed of granite and red-coloured quartz- 
rock. A fossil dicotyledonous tree was found on the 
shore of this island. Melville Island is the most 
western point ever navigated ?n the Polar sea from 
the caster!?, entrance. It lies in north latitude 74° 
26', and west longitude 113° 46'. Its length is one 
hundred and thirty-five miles from east- north-east to 
south-south-west; its breadth forty or fifty miles. 
Granite, gneiss and syenite, were found in the vicinity 
of Winter Harbour, but the principal formations in 
the island;, as far as the specimens brought allowed 



MELVILLE PENINSULA. 369 

US to infer, appear to be transition glance coal, and the 
first, or oldest secondary coal-formations. The rocks 
of these formations observed there were the follow- 
ing: — 1. White quartz-rock, sometimes micaceous, 
containing impressions of trilohites, belonging to the 
genus asaphus. Sandstone containing trochi, or joints 
of the stem of the encrinus, but the most frequent 
fossils in the sandstone were vegetable casts and im- 
pressions of species in some measure characteristic 
of the coal-sandstone, particularly arborescent ferns, 
resembling those which at present occur only in the 
tropical regions of the earth. Slate-clay and clay- 
ironstone were also found associated with the coal- 
sandstone ; one specimen of ironstone was found to 
contain a fossil awcWa, named by "Komg, Melvilliana, 
in honour of Lord Melville. The secondary coal is 
more or less of a slaty structure : its colour is of a 
brownish black. It emits no unpleasant smell when 
burning, and leaves copious grayish-white coloured 
ashes. It is quite a different coal from the brown 
coal of Disco, which contains amber. It would ap- 
pear that the trilobite, or glance coal, is connected 
with quartz-rock, while the secondary coal rests 
upon a limestone resembling the mountain limestone, 
containing bivalve shells and corallines, a species of 
terebratula, and the Favosites Gothlandicus, These 
deposites appear to be traversed by whin dykes or 
trap- veins. 

5. Islands and Countries bordering on Hudson^s 
Bay examined and partly discovered by Captain 
Parry, — The lands bordering on Hudson's Bay, and 
the islands mentioned by Captain Parry, viz. Melville 
Peninsula, Vansittart Island, -Baffin Island, Winter 
Island, Cockburn Island, Southampton Island, &c., 
are not very much elevated above the level of the 
sea, — the average height is 800 feet, and the highest 
summits not exceeding 1500 feet. The valleys are 
narrow and rugged, and the cliffs sometimes display 
mural precipices of more than one hundred feet high. 



370 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

The country is covered with ice and snow the greater 
part of the year, often exhibiting the most splendid 
colours and iridescences, and forms of the most pic- 
turesque description. The upper soil varies from a 
few inches to a foot in depth, beneath which the 
ground is frozen solid throughout the whole year. 
The rocks of which this country is composed vary 
in their nature ; in some places primitive rocks pre- 
dominating, in others those of the transition, or ot 
the secondary classes ; no tertiary rocks were met 
with, nor formations either of the ancient or modern 
volcanic periods. The primitive rocks enumerated 
and described are the following: — Granite, gneiss, 
mica slate, clay slate, chlorite slate, primitive trap, 
serpentine, limestone, and porphyry. In these rocks 
several interesting minerals occur, as the gems named 
zircon and beryl, also precious garnet, actynolite, tre- 
molite, diallage, coccolite, rock crystal, calc spar, 
rhomb spar, asbestos, graphite or black-lead, specular 
^ "^n ore, magnetic iron ore, chrome ore, or chromate 
of iron, titanitic iron, common and magnetic iron py- 
rites. The transition rocks are quartz-rock, old red 
sandstone, or red graywacke, common graywacke, 
and flinty slate. In them the following minerals 
were found; viz. felspar, mica, chlorite, pale rose 
quartz, epidoie, rock crystal, shorl, molybdena, iron 
glance, magnetic iron ore, copper pyrites, and iron 
pyrites. 

Of the secondary rocks, the only kinds met with 
were limestone, bituminous shale, and greenstone. 
No fossil organic remains were detected in any of the 
rocks of this series but the limestone, which afforded 
two genera of corals, viz. caryophyllea and astrea; 
one crustaceous animal of the trilooite genus ; a pro- 
ductus, a terebratula, and species of the genera naw- 
tilus, trochus, and orthocoeras. No extensive de- 
posites of alluvial matters were met with. The 
most striking objects are the rolled masses or boul- 
ders, spread over some of the islands. Some islands^ 



ARCTIC GEOrOGY. 371 

entirely composed of limestone, were strewed over 
with boulders, often of enormous size, of gneiss, 
granite, and quartz, although no hills of these POcks 
were within some hundred miles. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

The observations made in Cherie Island, Jan May- 
en's Island, Spitzbergen, Old Greenland, and the 
various lands and islands first explored during the 
four Arctic expeditions, viz. that under Captain Ross, 
and the three under Captain Parry, afford the fol- 
lowing general facts and inferences : — 

1. That these miserable and almost uninhabited 
regions abound in primitive and transition rocks, and 
that although secondary rocks occupy considerable 
tracts, still as far as is known at present, their extent 
is more limited than that of the older formations ; 
that the alluvial deposites are not extensive; that 
true modern volcanic rocks occur only in Jan May- 
en's Island; and that the only traces of tertiary 
strata were found in the sandstones, and clays, and 
limestones connected with the new trap-rocks in 
Baffin's Bay. 

2. That the Neptunian, primitive, and transition 
rocks, now forming islands of various magnitudes, 
were in all probability at one time connected together, 
and formed a more continuous mass of land than at 
present ; and that on these formations were depo- 
sited the secondary limestones, sandstones, gypsum, 
and coal, and upon these again the tertiary rocks, and 
the still newer shell-clay of Spitzbergen : That these 
various kinds of primary, transition, secondary, and 
tertiary rocks and alluvial clays were raised above 
the level of the sea at different times, through the 
agency of the igneous and volcanic rocks. 

3. That in the course of time the land was broken 
up, — either suddenly or by degrees, or partly by sud- 
den and violent action, and partly by the long-con- 



872 ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 

tinned agency of the atmosphere and the ocean, — 
into its present insular form ; and that, consequently, 
the secondary and tertiary formations were formerly 
in these regions more extensively distributed than at 
present. 

4. That previously to the deposition of the coal 
formation, as in Melville Island and in Jameson's 
Land, the previously-existing, or older hills, supported 
a vegetation resembling that which at present cha- 
racterizes the tropical regions. The fossil corals in 
the limestones, corals of which the prototypes are 
at present met with in the hot seas of the tropical 
regions, also intimate that, before, during, and after 
the deposition of the coal-formation, the waters of 
the Arctic ocean were so constituted as to support 
polyparia, or corals, resembling those of the present 
equatorial seas. 

5. That probably the ancient climates of the Arc- 
tic regions were connected in some degree with the 
former magnitude and form of the Arctic lands, and 
their relations to the magnitude and height of other 
countries. 

6. That the boulders or rolled blocks met with in 
different quarters, and in tracts distant from their 
original localities, afford evidence of the passage of 
water across them, and at a period subsequent to the 
deposition of the newest Neptunian strata. 

7. That possibly the distribution of the erratic 
blocks or boulders, was occasioned by the agitations 
in the ocean, caused by the upraising of certain 
lands. 

8. That the black or common coal, the coal of the 
old or most abundant coal-formation, which some 
speculators maintain to be confined to the more tem- 
perate and warmer regions of the earth, is now 
proved, — by its discovery by Parry in Melville Island 
far to the west, and by Scoresby far to the east in 
Jameson's Land, to form an inteiesting feature in 
the geognostical constitution of Arctic countries. 



ARCTIC GEOLOGY. 373 

9. That the new red sandstone and gypsum found 
in tracts allow us to infer that they contain rock-salt, 

10. That although few new metalliferous speci- 
mens have been found to gratify the curiosity of the 
mineralogist, yet the previous details show that valu- 
able ores of iron, copper, lead, and tin, and also gra- 
phite, or black-lead, are met with. 

11. That the gems, the most valued and most 
beautiful of mineral substances, are not wanting in 
the Arctic regions, as is proved by the occurrence 
there of precious garnets, beryls, zircons, dichroites, 
and rock-crystals. 

12. That the islands and lands described in the 
sketch exhibit the same general geognostical ar- 
rangements as occur in all other extensive tracts of 
country hitherto examined by the naturalist, — a fact 
which strengthens that opinion which maintains that 
the grand features of nature, in the mineral king^ 
dom, are everywhere similar, and, consequently, that 
the same general agencies must have prevailed 
during the formation of the dilFerent groups of rocks 
of which the earth is composed. 



luii: vNn. 



